Swiss banking major UBS has won the title of ‘Outstanding Global Private Bank 2013’ at the Private Banker International Global Wealth Awards held on 11 October in Singapore. PBI, the leading journal for the global wealth management industry, held the awards in conjunction with the 23rd Global Wealth Summit.
Credit Suisse and JP Morgan Private Bank are the other two lenders that were highly commended for the ‘Outstanding Global Private Bank 2013’ award category.
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The award for ‘Outstanding Global Private Bank – Asia Pacific 2013’ went to Citi Private Bank while the honour of ‘Outstanding Private Bank – Asia Pacific 2013’ went to Bank of Singapore (BoS).
The PBI awards are considered as the most credible in the industry, voted by the industry, for the industry and winners were announced and presented at the Awards Gala Dinner.
The PBI awards are based on a rigorous selection process which starts with nominations from industry professionals, including the readership of PBI. Nominees are then shortlisted and submitted to a panel of judges who decide the finalists in each award category and the overall winner.
John Evans, International Editor of PBI, said: "For 2013, we have seen more nominations for awards than ever before. Clearly, banks large and small are fighting for competitive positioning, particularly in the growth markets for wealth management in Asia and recognition by PBI, the longest established journal of wealth, is increasingly important.
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By GlobalData"This year, the PBI awards recognize the emergence of new business models, and new industry players, as financial institutions compete to out-fox their rivals and establish competitive differentiation. A number of our awards go to smaller institutions which are innovating as fast as the big global players."
Evans further added, "The time when banks could dictate what products and services client received has passed and those who are succeeding are making their businesses as client-centric as possible."
The 23rd Annual Private Banker International Global Wealth Summit brought together key industry leaders in the private banking industry to discuss the pivotal global issues concerning the private banking industry. Delegates and panellists nose-dived into discussions of maintaining industry fundamentals and client centricity, with the, impending regulation, rising cost-to-income ratios, and in effect, the consolidation of Asia private banking units that have developed recently.
Technology and its many uses, not only in its aid to internal process efficiency, but also its key role in product development was a central takeaway from the conference.
Tan Su Shan CEO of local bank, DBS and recipient of the PBI Outstanding Global Private Banker Award, highlighted the severe need for innovation in the technology offering of banks, to keep up with an increasingly savvy and demanding clientele. The unique proposition of servicing the ultra-high-net-worth segment was outlined by panellists Anurag Mahesh of Deutsche Bank, Bryan Henning of Barclays and Johnny Heng of Coutts, who concurred on building their service proposition in Asia around the entrepreneurial clientele, and the premature philanthropy offering that banks have to ripen in the region.
The findings of the 2013 PBI Top 20 Asia-Pacific Rankings were also revealed at the Summit. The survey results this year showed a rise in Asian wealth and revealed UBS as the largest private bank by AUM in the region increased by 16% to a record USD1, 173 billion in 2012.
The survey, which ranked private banks by AUM for high net worth clients with investable assets of more than US$1million, saw UBS claim the top spot from Citi Private Bank as the largest private bank in the region. The Swiss bank saw a 20% increase in AUM to US$215 billion in 2012 compared to a 9% increase from Citi Private Bank.
According to the survey, Credit Suisse has replaced HSBC as the third largest private bank in APAC with the acquisition of HSBC’s private banking units in Japan, which saw a 22% drop in AUM from 2011 to 2012. The PBI survey also reported that Julius Baer rose from 11th to the 6th largest in the region in 2012, with a doubling of their AUM within the year and DBS remains as the dominant local bank with US$46billion in AUM last year, followed closely by BoS with US$43billion.
