New digital financial infrastructure, new regional free trade agreements, and decisive leadership in the emerging sustainability and green agenda bode well for international RMB adoption.

Long a bastion of personalised service by relationship managers, the wealth management sector is undergoing a transformation as clients demand better service and as digital delivery enables new models. Wealth management firms need to combine “high-tech” with “high-touch” to stay ahead.

In general, industry assets under management in selected Asia Pacific countries shows sustained growth trends up to 2018. However, the shares of top banks in total assets under management differ widely, wherein top banks in emerging markets have higher market shares compared to top banks in mature markets.

DBS Group’s retail and wealth business has been accelerating income generation since 2013. However, the bank continues to face an uphill struggle with some of its overseas retail markets.

Customised financial advice had, for many years, been available almost exclusively to private banking clients or to the mass affluent. However, robo-advisors are offering the same advice to many more consumers. Customers in Asia, from the man on the street to the ultra-wealthy, seem ready to embrace these new robo-advisors.

The combined revenue of the top 100 global digital-only banks increased by 16% to reach some $66 billion, with China’s WeBank, Ally Bank from the US, and the retail arm of ING Group in the lead in 2023

China’s wealth management market overcame regulatory hurdles and saw renewed investor confidence in the first half of 2023, with mutual funds surpassing the scale of bank wealth management products

Despite recent market volatility and real estate downturns that resulted in a wealth decline in 2023, China’s wealth management industry is poised for continuous growth in 2024 and projected to exceed $100 trillion by 2025