DBS Group Holdings Ltd. will buy retail and wealth-management businesses from Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in five Asian countries, in a move that lodges the Singaporean lender firmly in the ranks of the region’s largest private banks.
DBS will pay S$110 million ($79 million) above the book value of the businesses, which operate in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Indonesia, the lender said in a stock-exchange statement. The deal will add S$23 billion of wealth assets to DBS’s books, taking its total assets under management to S$182 billion, it said.
Swiss bank UBS (UBSG.S) said Hong Kong’s securities regulator is investigating its role as sponsor of certain unnamed stock market listings in the city, with the intention to start unspecified action against the bank and some of its employees.
The disclosure by UBS, released with its third-quarter financial results, made it the first major bank to say it was being probed since Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) introduced tougher rules for listing sponsors. UBS said the watchdog had informed it of its actions this month.
UBS has posted its seventh consecutive quarter of falling income from private banking. The antidote until now has been cost-cutting. Is it enough?
Nobody envies UBS private banking head Juerg Zeltner right now: his unit, upon which the Swiss bank has built its long-term strategy, faces an uphill battle – and one that is only accentuating He has said that UBS must temper its profit expectations (in German), and effectively rebuffed net new money.
Singapore’s DBS Bank has appointed a Head of International Private Bank. His coverage will include Global South Asia and Non Resident Indian teams, the Europe, Middle East and Africa geographies.
Singapore’s DBS Bank has appointed a Head of International Private Bank. His coverage will include Global South Asia and Non Resident Indian teams, the Europe, Middle East and Africa geographies.
Published by Wealthbriefing Asia – 27th October 2016
A prominent executive search firm working in the Asia-Pacific region talks to this news service about what the Indonesian tax amnesty means for private bankers and wealth managers in Singapore and the wider region.
As the Indonesia tax amnesty moves into its second phase, having finished its first round at the start of October, Singapore-based bankers focused on the Indonesia market continue to wrestle with future strategy.
“There has been a significant decline in the transnational volume [of business] coming from Indonesian clients at the moment,” Danny Jones, founding partner at Huddleston Jones, told this publication in a recent interview at his offices in Singapore.
UBS has been mum about where its most recent prominent hire – previously Deutsche Bank’s private banking head in Asia – will fit in the Swiss bank. finews.ch reveals details of his new role.
The Zurich lender’s hire of Ravi Raju last month was a coup, leading Deutsche to scramble to stanch potential damage from the move.
Raju previously led an entire wealth management region – albeit at a far smaller competitor. Thus, the question of where he would fit into the giant Swiss bank’s hierarchy was a somewhat delicate one.
Julius Baer Group Ltd., DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and LGT Bank are considering bids for ABN Amro Group NV’s private-banking business in Asia, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The banks have expressed interest in the ABN Amro unit and will study more detailed information on its business, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. ABN Amro hopes to announce a deal by year-end to minimize uncertainty for its private bankers and clients, the people said.
Indosuez Wealth Management has appointed François R Farjallah as global head of the Middle East region.
He will lead the coordination of all wealth management activities in the region and drive Indosuez’s Middle East business, which is covered from offices in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi) and Lebanon (Beirut).
Regional Perspective
making the big picture clearer
Global Connection
We take your story further
Local Knowledge
Helping you to understand your own requirement
Specialists Sourcing Specialists