Standard Chartered To Intensify UHNW Focus Across The East - Report

Eliane Chavagnon

6 November 2012

Standard Chartered is to focus its private banking operations on ultra high net worth clients, as it targets wealthy individuals in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - areas with faster wealth generation rates than in the West, the firm told Reuters in a recent interview.

"We see ourselves as having a special role to play in that segment, mainly because we know a lot of people who are in that lucky position," Stephen Richards Evans, Standard Chartered's head of private banking for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and the Americas, reportedly told the newswire yesterday.

The bank said it has hired three senior private bankers to set up its UHNW family office. Ayman Abdul-Hadi, previously a managing director at HSBC's private bank, joined in June with Khalid Sattam, formerly of Julius Baer. The bank also brought in Damien Morgan, also from HSBC, to advise wealthy clients.

The bank had not responded to a request from WealthBriefing to comment on the plans in time for publication.

According to Evans, large family offices in regions such as the Middle East are looking for "holistic" solutions, including services from wealth management to succession planning and addressing capital requirements.

"Standard Chartered is trying to leverage the group's existing relationships in segments such as retail and wholesale banking to meet these needs," Evans was quoted as saying. "If a private banker is worth his salt, he will act as a sounding board to issues the patriarch of a family business is facing," he continued. "Wealthy clients are increasingly demanding holistic solutions."

Reuters pointed to a study by the Boston Consulting Group in June last year, which found that the Middle East and Africa wealth management sector grew by 8.6 per cent in 2010, while overall assets under management could hit $6.7 trillion by 2015.