With the number of millionaires in India rising at a fast pace in view of the booming economy and robust capital markets, a host of domestic and foreign banks are eyeing a pie of wealth management services in the country.
The country boasts of about 100,000 millionaires and the number is estimated to be growing at 20 per cent per year. Wealth management services are getting more attention over the last two years as the expanding economy, rising stock prices and increase in incomes turned the spotlight on this sector.
"Wealth management industry in India today stands at USD 6 billion out of the total retail banking size of USD 10 billion. By FY10, retail banking will grow to USD 20 billion and the share of wealth management at USD 10 billion," says Murali Natarajan, regional head for consumer banking, Standard Chartered Bank. "Wealth management is big focus area for us and we are already clocking a robust growth of 25-30 per cent per annum for the past 3 years," he said, adding the bank is present in the wealth management space with clients assets under management of Rs 10,000 crore.
A host of local banks like HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank offer this service along with foreign banks such as Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, HSBC and Citigroup. A bank which provides the entire product suite of liability, asset and wealth management products is more likely to retain customers.
Source: New Age Business Date: 19.06.2007 [ID: 41]