The partnership brings together DBS Bank and DBS Vickers Securities (Thailand).

There are more than 122,000 HNW individuals in Thailand (as of 2017), almost equal to the number in Singapore. Thai wealth assets under management have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 12.7 per cent between 2010 and 2017. This fact hasn’t gone unnoticed: created a Thai business, called LGT Securities (Thailand) Limited. Some firms have been in the country for some time, such as Credit Suisse, which recently named a new Thailand CEO. Thailand’s overall wealth market is estimated to be around $300 billion, with a rapidly growing population of high net worth individuals of approximately 30,000, according to the Global Wealth Report 2017.

As DBS said in its statement yesterday, much of Thai wealth is held in family-owned businesses – accounting for more than 80 per cent of the nation’s gross domestic product and more than one-third of listed firms on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Singapore-based DBS said “these family businesses will be well-served by the bank’s unique `one-bank’ proposition, which provides access to offerings across wealth management, retail, investment and corporate banking.”

The partnership blends DBS Vickers Securities (Thailand)’s onshore offering across funds, equities, structured notes and bonds, as well as Thai market advisory, and DBS Private Bank’s global wealth expertise, Asian network and suite of offshore wealth management solutions and platform.

“We believe the Thai wealth market holds immense potential, having witnessed Thai investors’ growing sophistication and receptiveness to investment ideas, and the Bank of Thailand’s encouraging regulatory stance towards offshore investments,” Sim S Lim, group head of wealth management and consumer banking, DBS Bank, said.  

DBS has been operating a securities business in Thailand since 1998. DBS Vickers Securities (Thailand) holds a full securities licence.