Swiss bank UBS AG yesterday launched two new wealth management branches in Taichung and Kaohsiung aimed at providing services to the nation’s growing number of high-income individuals.
UBS said GDP rose 5.7 percent last year and exports contributed 65 percent to the economy, which bolster the company’s belief that the nation presents an important market for the wealth management business.
“In light of the very high level of wealth creation here in Taiwan, UBS’ timing seeking to expand the presence of the company’s wealth management business seems to be impeccable,” Rory Tapner, chairman and CEO of UBS in the Asia-Pacific region, said at a media briefing yesterday.
Tapner said Taiwan has always been a key market for UBS within the Asia-Pacific region. In the last two years, UBS has posted double-digit percentage revenue growth across its range of businesses in Taiwan.
“Since UBS opened its first wealth management office in Taipei in 2000, Taiwan has become the third-largest wealth management market in Asia Pacific,” said Kathryn Shih (施�?�), a member of the UBS group managing board and head of wealth management in the Asia-Pacific region.
UBS estimates investable liquid assets of affluent households in the Asia-Pacific region will grow by 9.7 percent in the next few years, compared with the 6 percent global growth rate, Shih said.
“Taiwanese high-income individuals now account for 7 percent of the Asia-Pacific region’s wealth pool, and this continues to grow at a rate of about 5 percent per year,” she said.
UBS calculates that 45 percent of the nation’s wealth is held in central and southern Taiwan. In addition, 90 percent of UBS’ potential clients are entrepreneurs.
To cater to entrepreneurs, UBS said it would provide corporate advisory services, such as succession planning issues, capital raising, initial public offering (IPO) and disposal of family businesses.
UBS intends to snap up a 10 percent market share in the high-income clientele this year and to open more branches in Taiwan, particularly in high-growth regions like Hsinchu, Shih added.
UBS, one of the top five foreign banks in Taiwan, employs 380 people locally.
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