Falcon Private Bank, the Zurich-based firm which was formerly part of AIG, expects to almost double its assets under management - to hit around $20 billion - over the next two to three years by targeting the growing wealth in emerging markets, according to Bloomberg.

The bank will focus on expansion in the Middle East and Asia, its chief executive Eduardo Leemann said in an interview with the news service.

“Everything we’re focused on is east of Switzerland as this is where the growth markets are - Asia, Russia and the Middle East,” Leemann reportedly said. “They’re the big contributors. We’ve forgotten everywhere else.”  

This ties in with news announced last month that the bank is to open a representative office in Abu Dhabi to bolster its presence in the United Arab Emirates, as reported at the time by WealthBriefing. The new office is due to open in the first quarter of 2011, and will add to branches and representative offices Falcon already has in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.

Meanwhile, the bank is shrinking its institutional business because it “didn’t really work”, reports the publication. This part of the business is being slimmed down to a few core competencies in the alternative asset management space.

Falcon is owned by Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments, which acquired it from AIG under the name AIG Private Bank last year.