DBS aims for S$100b in private banking assets in less than 3 years

SINGAPORE, June 9 (Reuters): Singapore's DBS Group Holdings DBSM.SI is aiming for a 40 percent jump in its private banking assets to $100 billion in less than three years, fueled by the growth of millionaires in the Greater China region and in its home market.

DBS's group head of wealth management, Tan Su Shan, said Singapore's biggest lender is generating strong asset growth in its home market, where there are more than 100,000 millionaires, and in China, where sectors such as technology and real estate are adding to the millionaire population.

"For both onshore and offshore in China, we're seeing very good, double-digit growth," Tan told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit on Tuesday.

"China now wants to do wealth management in a big way. The speed of change, the recognition that the RMB (renminbi) is an international currency, the wide use of the RMB, the opening up of the capital account, the flow of North-South-South North, to me it's all very exciting and it represents what is the single biggest trend for us in Asia," she said.

DBS bought Societe Generale's SOGN.PA Asian private bank last year, helping boost the ranking of the Singapore lender to Asia's seventh biggest private bank. DBS manages S$96 billion ($71 billion) at its private bank.

DBS and the private banking arm of rival Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp OCBC.SI are jostling for market share in a highly competitive wealth management market in Asia, led by global players such as UBS UBSG.VX and Citigroup C.N.

In China, Tan said DBS is looking at alliances and partnerships with companies in the technology space, travel companies, luxury retailers - tie-ups which will help DBS get a better foothold in the market.

"In the wealth management space onshore, an ideal partner would be someone who is already looking after the targeted clients, who may want to then have a good bank that's able to do part of the infrastructure for them," she said.

DBS is gaining market share in Singapore, Tan said, without giving details. To win market share in places such as China and Indonesia, data mining is key to get a better insight about what customers want, she said.

"The old style of wealth management and sales - create the product, get the relationship manager to sell, sell sell - doesn't work anymore," said Tan, who has previously worked for Morgan Stanley MS.N and Citigroup.