HSBC Private Banking has expanded its wealth management footprint in Southeast Asia with the launch of its onshore business in Thailand, according to a statement from the firm.
This is HSBC PB’s second onshore business in the Asean after Singapore and will provide clients access to global capital markets by leveraging its existing infrastructure of advisory, investment methodologies, controls and systems in Asia.
The team in Thailand will cover client management and advisory services. Clients’ assets will be booked in HSBC PB in Singapore.
Leading the Thailand office is Saranya Arunsilp, who has been named as head of global private banking for Thailand, according to the statement. Before HSBC PB, she was a deputy managing director and chief for private banking at Kasikornbank, according to her Linkedin profile.
Her profile shows she joined HSBC in May last year.
Arunsilp will be supported by a local team of relationship managers and investment counsellors working closely with the Singapore teams, the statement added.
HSBC PB is seeing huge opportunities in Thailand’s high net worth individual (HNWI) market. Assets held by HNWIs are expected to grow by 12.4% to $548bn by 2025, with at least 100,000 HNWIs in the country, the bank said, citing data from Capgemini.
“Our new private bank in Thailand opens up material opportunities for us to serve the fast-growing and increasingly sophisticated private wealth and business needs of new and existing clients in the country,” Siew Meng Tan, regional head of global private banking for Asia-Pacific at HSBC, said in the statement.
HSBC also noted that since 2016, the Bank of Thailand, the country’s central bank, has been introducing a series of additional measures to relax foreign exchange regulation and encourage greater flexibility in the financial markets under the Capital Account Liberalisation Master Plan, opening up opportunities for selective offshore investments.
Several other foreign private banks have also started to take advantage of the growing wealth in Thailand and have established on-the-ground businesses.
In February 2019, LGT, the international private banking and asset management group owned by the Princely House of Liechtenstein, launched a wealth management subsidiary in Thailand.
In 2016, Credit Suisse set up its wealth management team in the country through its securities entity, Credit Suisse Securities (Thailand), according to a statement at the time.
Meanwhile, other firms preferred to take the partnership route.
In April 2018, Julius Baer partnered with Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank to establish a wealth management joint venture, SCB Julius Baer.
Similarly, Lombard Odier established a partnership with Bangkok-based Kasikornbank in 2014, in which it manages global investment funds on behalf of Kasikornbank’s private bank.
Separately, HSBC said it has been expanding its offerings in Singapore last year to strengthen its Asean coverage.
For example, it introduced offshore Vietnam coverage to serve the private wealth needs of SME business owners. It also rolled out a dedicated independent asset managers (IAM) desk to meet the needs of family offices and independent advisors managing wealth on behalf of their clients.
The bank also established a family office advisory team to support the establishment of a single or multi-family office.
