HSBC (匯豐銀行) yesterday opened its revamped branch in Taoyuan, promising to provide tailor-made wealth management expertise to the county's growing number of high-income earners.
The bank will also revamp seven other branches nationwide as part of its efforts to take up a sizable market share in the nation's wealth management businesses.
"We hope to see [annual] three-digit growth this year from wealth management businesses. It'll be an aggressive growth," Betty Miao (繆莉莉), head of HSBC's personal financial service, said at the relocated branch's opening ceremony yesterday morning.
Miao, however, refused to reveal the bank's revenue for last year or its total number of customers.
She said that there should be no problem for the bank to "more than double" its number of wealth management customers this year and hoped the bank's asset under management would grow accordingly.
HSBC saw double-digit year-on-year growth last year in the number of its wealth management customers and asset under management, the bank's statement said.
The nation's total assets under management also saw double-digit growth to NT$8 trillion (US$246.67 billion) last year with a total of 740,000 customers.
Saying the nation's wage-earners park 60 percent of their incomes in deposit accounts, Miao added that the potential for business opportunities in wealth management businesses was considerable since most people in the US and Europe only park 20 percent of their assets in deposit accounts.
"We hope to eventually reach a market share of 8 to 10 percent," Miao said without giving the bank's current market share and a timeframe for the goal.
She further lauded business opportunities in Taoyuan after the county's production output surged to NT$2.2 trillion as of the first quarter last year.
Average income per household in Taoyuan ranks third in Taiwan, the bank's statement said.
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