Standard Chartered’s Asian private-bank asset growth has flattened off this year as the lender focused on wealthier, higher-margin clients and investment returns were constrained by volatile regional markets, a report said.

Standard Chartered’s Asian private-bank asset growth has
flattened off this year as the lender focused on wealthier, higher-margin
clients and investment returns were constrained by volatile regional markets,
according to Bloomberg.

Assets managed in Asia - excluding the Indian sub-continent
and the Middle East - have stayed at
about $35 billion, unchanged from the end of last year, the news service quoted
Rajesh Malkani, the private bank’s head of Northeast and Southeast Asia, as
saying.

This publication contacted the UK-listed bank, which earns the bulk of its revenues outside the UK, to elaborate on the report and confirm any figures. It had not responded at the time of going to press.

Globally, Standard Chartered started increasing from late
last year the investment threshold for private-bank clients to $2 million,
double the previous level, he said.

“What we don’t want to end up doing is creating a lower-end
private bank,” Malkani said. “As clients become more informed, you have to keep
raising your own bar.”

Standard Chartered’s private bank has “continued to grow at
a very decent clip” if clients with less than $2 million were not excluded from
the calculation and the market losses ignored, he said.