Swiss private bank Julius Baer reportedly has plans to set up business in China in partnership with a local financial firm as part of its strategy to boost growth in Asia, according to a Reuters report, as reported by FSA‘s sister publication, International Adviser.
Reports state that Julius Baer aims to establish a majority-owned joint venture to tap the rapidly growing wealth in the country and has started looking for a partner.
If successful, Julius Baer will be the first major private bank to set up a wealth management joint venture in China.
This comes as China continues to open up its financial services markets to international companies.
In July last year, China’s Financial Stability Development Committee announced 11 measures to encourage overseas participation in the country’s financial markets. Included were foreign control of domestic wealth management companies (WMCs) and the removal of foreign ownership limits for fund management companies in 2020, as reported by FSA.
France-based asset manager Amundi and BOC Wealth Management, the subsidiary of Bank of China, were the first to gain approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) to set up a joint-venture under the new wealth management framework. The entity is 55% owned by Amundi and 45% owned by BOC WM, and expects to open for business later this year.
In August this year, the Chinese regulator has already given the go-ahead for Blackrock and Temasek to form a wealth management joint venture (JV) with China Construction Bank (CCB), FSA previously reported. Blackrock, which has around $7trn of AUM, applied to China’s banking authority in July to form the venture.
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