The private banking sector in Singapore is poised to get a boost from Standard Chartered Bank's acquisition of American Express Bank. Under a deal announced on Tuesday, StanChart is buying Amex Bank for US$860 million in cash.
The tie-up will boost StanChart's private banking business in Asia, of which Singapore is a key part.
There has been growing competition in the private banking sector in Asia as banks eye the region's 2.6 million high net-worth individuals.
Major players include UBS, Citigroup and HSBC.
StanChart says its acquisition of Amex Bank will propel the lender into the top-ten list of Asia's high-net-worth wealth league - most likely in the seventh position.
Its assets-under-management globally will increase by about 73% to US$30 billion.
Out of that, up to US$20 billion will be based in Asia, where StanChart's private bank has its headquarters in Singapore.
Peter Flavel, a senior managing director at StanChart, said: "What it (the acquisition) adds is.....a larger number of relationship managers purely working onshore in Singapore. And this transaction adds 120 relationship managers to our 150 relationship managers globally. Around three quarters of those relationship managers are in our natural footprint in and around Singapore. So it's a good and very strong fast-tracking of our plans."
The acquisition will also double StanChart's US-dollar clearing business and provide a direct Euro and Yen clearing capability.
StanChart's Peter Flavel said: "For Singaporean companies wanting to trade out of Singapore and wanting to settle and buy in Euro and Yen and sell their products in Europe and Japan, we've now got a much greater in-house capacity."
StanChart will not be keeping the Amex Bank brand name but it plans to leverage on its other capabilities.
StanChart's Peter Flavel said: "They have two trust companies in Guernsey and the Cayman islands. They've got a number of Advisory Rep programs for unit trusts, which are very good. So we're pleased with those two capabilities and there's a Geneva booking centre as well." - CNA/ir
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