UBS plans banking school in Singapore - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

リンク: UBS plans banking school in Singapore - Print Version - International Herald Tribune.

UBS plans banking school in Singapore

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2006

SINGAPORE UBS, the world's biggest money manager, plans to open a private banking school in Singapore in the first quarter of next year as it seeks to grow the number of client advisers in Asia by more than 20 percent annually.

The school, called the UBS Wealth Management Campus Asia Pacific, will provide training for about 5,000 existing and future client advisers from the region through 2010, UBS said.

"By 2030, three of the world's biggest economies will be here in the Asia Pacific; namely China, Japan, India," Kathryn Shih, Head of UBS Wealth Management Asia Pacific, said at a media briefing Tuesday in Singapore. "This will result in higher levels of domestic wealth in the region."

UBS, Credit Suisse Group, Citigroup and other private banks face an increasingly competitive market for management of the $7.6 trillion of private riches in the region.

Private banks have been recruiting senior bankers from their competitors, reflecting a shortage of private bankers in Asia.

Marcel Kreis, who has more than 20 years of experience in private banking, and Anuj Khanna, a regional head, left UBS to join Credit Suisse Group, the world's fourth-largest money manager for the wealthy, during the past two months.

A wider pool of trained private bankers would help ease competition for talent, which has led pay to escalate, said Martin Teo, the chief executive officer of the Institute of Banking & Finance in Singapore.

"The talent pool currently is limited," Teo said. "In three to five years' time, a bigger talent pool will be available and that will help to curb pay escalation. That is what we see as the long- term solution."

Assets under management in the region will outgrow the value of those in Europe in the next two decades, Shih said. "The potential will be greater than that of Europe in 20 years' time," she said.

Liquid assets held by individuals in Asia excluding Japan will grow by 9.7 percent annually until 2010, compared with less than 6 percent in the rest of the world, according to UBS estimates.

The wealth of individuals with at least $1 million of assets in the Asia-Pacific region will increase by an average of 6.7 percent annually in the next four years, to $10.6 trillion, according to a report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.

The number of millionaires in the region rose 7.3 percent to 2.4 million last year, outpacing the 6.9 percent increase in North America and 4.5 percent gain in Europe, according to the Capgemini- Merrill report.

ING appoints four to Asia

ING Groep, headquartered in Amsterdam, announced four new appointments for its Asia corporate and investment banking department.

Patrick Degg, who is transferring from London to Hong Kong, will head the leveraged finance unit in Asia, financing the needs of private equity firms and companies in their mergers and acquisitions, the bank said.

Tibor Papp will be managing director, co-head of syndicated finance for Asia, based in Hong Kong.

Sandeep Sharma, based in Singapore, will also be a co-head of syndicated finance for Asia along with Papp.

Robert Scholten, based in Hong Kong and head of loan syndications for Asia, will be transferred to Indonesia