Asia remains a bright spot for world’s leading wealth managers, says GlobalData
Asia leads the world’s private wealth management industry. Source: shutterstock.com
Even as the market leaders of the world’s private wealth management industry suffered a rare setback in 2018, Asia continues to be a bright spot for the world’s leading wealth managers, according to GlobalData.
An analysis of Global Wealth Management Competitor Analytics reveals that the assets under management (AUM) among the 40 major private wealth managers declined by 1% to $12,197 billion over the course of 2018.
While not all private bankers saw their clients’ investments suffer, with 22 wealth managers recording declines, the negativity was evident among the very largest private banks, such as market leader UBS or Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as well as those with smaller books like BNY Mellon and RBS.
However, Asia-focused wealth manager sub-group managed to grow AUM by 6.7% in 2018 despite the overall contraction. Less rosy was the decline in profits for Asian wealth managers, the second year in a row that they saw falling profitability as competitive pressure squeezes margins. The region’s wealth hubs are hardly low-cost while the number of top-tier private wealth managers in the region has shot up.
