Fortis Enters into Private Banking Alliance for the NRI Market

Paul Das

25 July 2005

Fortis has entered into a private banking strategic non-equity alliance with ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank. Fortis said in a statement that its private banking unit, MeesPierson, and ICICI Bank would offer wealth management services, estate planning, trust and corporate services and discretionary asset management to non-resident Indian nationals around the globe. ICICI Bank recently said it plans to hire up to 400 private bankers this year as it expands its wealth management operations. The Hyderabad-based bank, which started private banking three years ago and is now the market leader, overseeing client assets of $5 billion onshore, is targeting a 10 per cent share of client wealth in India in two to three years, versus 2.5 per cent of the $200 billion market it has now. A considerable amount of this market is mass affluent, though. The firm aims to raise its private banker headcount to 650 by March 2006 from 250 in March this year, according to Arpit Agarwal, head of private banking at ICIC. The hiring will largely be of graduates and MBAs from colleges to train them as bankers, he added. Half of the $5 billion private banking assets that ICICI oversees comes from clients with accounts of $1.2 million and above but the group has set a low threshold of Rupees 500,000 ($11,487) for entry. Fortis recently acquired Dryden Wealth Management from Prudential Financial, which gave the Dutch-Belgian financial services group a further foothold in the Asian wealth management market.