HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) has lowered the threshold of its private banking service, from individuals with assets of US$5 million to those with US$2 million, in a bid to enhance its competitiveness in the nation’s wealth management market.
The bank maintained its “Premier” service for those with assets of more than NT$3 million, private banking head Sabrina Chen (陳怡婷) told a media briefing in Taipei on Wednesday.
The changes come as HSBC Holdings PLC adjusts its wealth management business worldwide, Chen said.
The group has redefined segments of clients and merged its private banking and wealth management units in a bid to create synergy, she added.
The revised threshold is still higher than the US$1 million threshold adopted by most banks in Taiwan, she said.
Chen did not reveal the number of clients the bank has with ultra-high net worth, but said the bank is confident that its client base would grow, citing a study showing that about 600,000 Taiwanese last year had a net worth of more than US$1 million, a number expected to reach 1 million Taiwanese by 2025.
HSBC Taiwan has not considered applying to the Financial Supervisory Commission for approval of a high-asset program, which would allow it to provide clients new products such as foreign currency-denominated structured notes and derivatives, she said.
“Clients are not necessarily interested in these complicated derivatives, but they necessarily want their bank to research the products well before selling them. Generally, most of our high-net-worth clients prefer products with stable returns, rather than risky ones, so that they can see their assets grow,” she said.
The bank has improved its information system, incoporating more services into the platform for its top clients, Chen said, adding that it is the only private banking service in Taiwan that offers online services.
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