Western banks are piling into the Asia-Pacific and Indian sub-continent regions – dazzled by a 9.7 per cent rise in the number of high net worth individuals in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010 alone (source: Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report). But Nelson, who has been at the helm of StanChart’s private bank since July 2010 when he succeeded Peter Flavel, knows his bank has the priceless benefit – and luck – of being an established player in this crucial region, as well as having deep roots in Africa.

“We are in the right place at the right time,” Nelson told this publication in an interview. “The opportunity is just massive. It is not just the growth in Asia but the growth that we can get from ourselves. Clients trust us, they are already with us,” he said.

One of the trickiest tasks for any big full-service banking group is to avoid making clients fear they are just numbers or having products pushed at them. At the same time, Nelson knows that as regulatory and other burdens rise, banks can cope better if they have economies of scale and can leverage benefits of investment and corporate banking arms.  Like other private banks held in a larger group, such as Credit Suisse, JP Morgan and Citi, Standard Chartered makes no apology for stressing the benefits of size. Nelson even casts doubt on whether small boutique players can make a big success in Asia.

“There are a lot of players coming to Asia from Europe but it is a bit of a different game here than in the West. If you look at most of the Western wealth banking side into private bankers where they fit the bill, he said.

Nelson’s bosses will hope the private bank can deliver. Wealth management income at this London-listed firm rose in 2010 by 24 per cent, year on year, to $1.138 billion.

The India market

As is increasingly obvious, the India market – both domestic and non-domestic – is attracting attention from wealth managers. In June, the private bank appointed a head of private banking for India, Sandeep Das, previously general manager for premium and consumer banking at Standard Chartered India.  

For the first time in the history of its World Wealth Report, Merrill Lynch/Capgemini announced that India had moved into the top 12 of countries in terms of the number of HNW individuals (153,000). Admittedly, the absolute numbers are way behind, say, those of the US (2.9 million) but the growth rate (20.8 per cent) gets private bankers understandably excited.

However, one issue that has to be borne in mind is that the offshore, non-resident India market is so far much greater than the domestic one, said Nelson.

“The product side is more limited than in booking centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong. There are quite a lot of regulatory restrictions in India that make doing business there a bit more difficult,” he said.

Nelson would not be drawn on specific numbers in terms of any hiring targets for the Asia-Pacific or MENA regions, but answered in more general terms: “The markets that we are focusing on to grow are around Asia and the Middle East. China continues to be a huge opportunity for us.”

“We have teams in Hong Kong and Singapore together with on the ground in China doing private banking. Indonesia continues to be a very attractive market for us with strong growth,” he said.

With the Asia-Pacific dimension in mind, Nelson commented on how clients from this region are increasingly visible purchasers of Western assets, such as London real estate. (To view a related article on this issue, click here).

“We continue to lend for housing, in London for example, for our own Asian clients,” he said. “We are certainly working for clients from all over the world that are investing into London. We would not be facilitating investment to help them around restrictions, however. A lot of Chinese clients have got significant businesses offshore these days,” he said.

“There are restrictions on exporting capital outside of China but they ,” he said.