Providing a Full Service
Understanding clients’ needs and delivering first-rate advice and products remain BNP Paribas Wealth Management’s top priorities
BNP Paribas Wealth Management has been a leading private bank in Asia for decades, and it intends to maintain a strong commitment to the region by leveraging the BNP Paribas Group’s expertise and strength.
“Developing a client-centric approach is at the heart of our strategy; we organise our business by markets, which allows us to better understand clients’ needs. Given the changes to the banking environment, it is imperative for us to be ever closer to our clients in order to provide customised and value-added services,” says Mignonne Cheng, chairman and chief executive officer of BNP Paribas Wealth Management Asia Pacific.
The group has a rich heritage in the region with a presence dating back more than 150 years. It set up its first offices in China and India in 1860, and has been in Hong Kong for more than 50 years. BNP Paribas Wealth Management is well placed to serve the expanding number of affluent families who are driving the world’s most dynamic region.
The wealth of households in Asia has increased at doubledigit rates every year since 2007, according to a recent BCG survey. The consultants project that it will rise at an 11.4 per cent compound annual growth rate until 2017, accounting for 80 per cent of total new personal wealth in the world. Indeed, the region’s individual and family wealth will likely surpass the amount of private wealth in the US within two years.
BNP Paribas Wealth Management has already achieved great success in North Asia, and it now plans to use the same approach and extend its reach in Southeast Asia.
However, developing a wealth management business requires time, patience and a long-term commitment to build and maintain relationships with clients. It is crucial to identify their specific requirements.
“The capacity to serve a diversified client base is one of our key strengths, founded on our global reach, coordinated business lines and ability to provide innovative solutions,” says Cheng.
“No longer satisfied with just basic execution services, clients increasingly require high-quality, proactive recommendations as well as products and services addressing all aspects of their needs, aligned to their risk appetite,” she adds.
Holistic Service The relationship managers and product specialists are supported by best-in-class services from across the group’s businesses, including corporate and institutional banking, real estate and departments covering alternative investments such as rural land, vineyards, forests and holiday homes as well as passion investments.
Asia’s rich are characterised by a large number of firstgeneration billionaires, who are self-motivated entrepreneurs looking to grow their wealth concurrently with expanding their businesses.
“As growth in the megawealth client segment in Asia is becoming more important, the need to strengthen products and service offerings to cater for this group is essential,” says Cheng.
In the early 2000s, BNP Paribas Wealth Management