In the early 1990s’, Hong Kong represented about 15% of Greater China GDP (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). But today, it is a mere 2%. Singapore fared only slightly better compared to ASEAN, from 9%, 20 years ago to today 6%.
What does it mean for Wealth Managers? We expect onshore Private Banking (PB) assets under management (AUM) to grow ~1.6x faster than in offshore hubs. With that, there is an increasing requirement for any market participants to understand HNWIs in local markets.
In this article we showcase some of the findings from recent work in the Private Banking space. We ran both primary market surveys with ~700 HNWIs and had 1:1 interviews with ~100 HNWIs that showed a differentiated picture. Behavior and preferences differs both by country and by customer persona. A Chinese 3rd generation wealthy living in Hong Kong will have very differentiated needs from an Indonesian state-owned enterprise Executive. Private Banks have to increasingly define what persona they target – and then truly understand what the individuals behind the persona aim to achieve.
