Bank of East Asia plans to open top-end private banking offices in Shanghai and Beijing in the first half of this year to take a bite of the wealth management market.

The bank is now preparing two offices and senior bankers from Hong Kong will bring their expertise to help nurture its business on the Chinese mainland, an unnamed bank official said.

The assets threshold of the services is about US$1 million, a common amount in the industry.

Overseas players like Standard Chartered Bank, Citigroup and domestic banks like Bank of China and China Merchants Bank have already ventured into wealth management as the number of millionaires rises in the country.

Private banking is on the top of the pyramid for banking services. In the US, the service's average profit sits at 35 percent with a yearly growth of about 12 percent to 15 percent.

The Chinese mainland has 345,000 millionaires in US dollar terms as of 2006, up from 2005's 320,000, said a report by Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Private bankers are offering a wide range of wealth management services rather than selling products like personal banking services.

A growing number of affluent people are requiring better financial planning need. Demand is also growing for bankers with global experience to help them get a higher return on their investments.

(Shanghai Daily, February 27, 2008)