There are about 30 independent asset managers in Singapore, according to Sylvain Gysler, head of the Asia desk that deals with those advisers at Swiss bank Pictet. Hong Kong has about 12, estimates Philippe Legrand, the Asia chief executive officer of London & Capital Plc, an external asset manager.

Legrand has worked in BNP Paribas SA and ABN Amro Group NV’s private-banking divisions. Taurus’s Nalwa worked previously at the wealth-management units of Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Inc.

Independent managers in Switzerland account for a little more than $300 billion of the $2.2 trillion of assets managed by private banks there, said Pictet’s Gysler.

Buoyed by economic growth, Asians with at least $1 million in investable assets are expected to see their riches climb to $15.9 trillion by 2015 from $12 trillion last year, according to Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada’s 2013 Asia-Pacific Wealth Report released on Sept. 25.

“The more the private banking industry matures in the region, the more you will see senior private bankers wanting to become independent and set up their own business,” said Hans Goetti, who worked at Citigroup and LGT Group before becoming Asia chief investment officer of independent manager Finaport Investment Intelligence. “In Switzerland, the pinnacle of your career is when you become independent.”

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