Singapore is not only booming as an offshore centre for private banking but the number of millionaires in the city-state is also increasing ...

Singapore is not only booming as an offshore centre for private banking but the number of millionaires in the city-state is also increasing rapidly. Last week’s Merrill Lynch Capgemini survey of Asian wealth management found that Singapore’s concentration of wealth is much higher than either the global average or the regional average. The survey shows that there are now 55,000 Singaporeans with net assets, excluding their own home, of more than $1 million –a figure that grew by 13.4 per cent last year largely due to the performance of the Singapore equity market. These high net worth Singaporeans collectively hold $260 billion in assets, spread between equities (22 per cent), real estate (17 per cent), fixed income 13 per cent and 11 per cent in cash. Of the 55,000, 1.3 per cent were classed by the report as ultra rich with assets of more than $30 million. The 55,000 that the report identifies as being high net worth equates to 1.48 per cent of Singapore’s adult population, almost 7 times the global average of 0.22 per cent. The average for Asia is only 0.1 per cent. Next to Singapore, Japan has the highest concentration of millionaires in Asia with an average of 1.29 per cent, while China has 320,000 millionaires or 0.03 per cent of the population. Overall, the Merrill survey forecasts that the wealth of Asia’s rich would reach $10.6 trillion by 2010, a phenomena which would trigger a huge demand for wealth managers. There are currently around 5,000 private bankers in Asia but industry insiders estimate that 10,000 will be needed within two years.