The Macquarie Group has pushed further into the offshore market with the group setting up an Asian private wealth business in Singapore.
The business will be headed up by former JPMorgan private bank head for South Asia Joseph Poon.
"Singapore is the world's fastest-growing private banking and wealth management centre and in the future will be one of only two global private banking and wealth management hubs, the other being Switzerland," Poon said.
A move to establish Macquarie Private Wealth Asia in Singapore had been on the cards for many years, Macquarie Private Bank Australia head Guy Hedley said.
"Asia has one of the largest populations of high net worth individuals and this is growing at a rate of 10.1 per cent. The consolidation of wealth at these high levels is happening faster in the Asian region than anywhere else," Hedley said.
This is not Macquarie's first foray into Asia. The financial services group has held a presence in Asia for more than a decade and considers itself as the largest corporate finance advisory business with 500 staff in Singapore.
"Given Macquarie's presence in the region, it was a logical move for Macquarie Private Wealth Asia to enter the market to provide ultra high net worth investors in the region with access to an expanded network of professional advice, and importantly, the same deal flow as Macquarie's institutional clients," Hedley said.
"In addition to the full suite of more traditional private wealth management services, the Macquarie private wealth model will provide ultra high net worth clients with access to exclusive deal flows that are normally only available to institutional investors."
