Asia's Wealthy Turn To Private Bankers To Protect Their Investments

Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

05 March 2001

Asia's most wealthy people are turning to their private bankers to help them to diversify their investments and protect their riches. This is according to leading global private bank, JP Morgan.

The Hong Kong Standard online newspaper quoted Asia-Pacific chief executive of JP Morgan, Frederick Ma, as saying that before the 1997 economic crisis the majority of Asia's wealthy individuals kept their investment interests at a domestic level in the belief that the region provided the highest growth. He explained: 'Our clients' investor mentality has changed a lot in the last couple of years. Immediately after the financial crisis of 1997, there was a panic to keep cash. But by 1998, people began to warm up to the idea of equity markets in the United States and wanted to diversify their portfolios. Since 1998, our business has been very good.'

The amount of assets under management by JP Morgan in Asia is undisclosed but Jes Staley, global managing director and co-head of JPMorgan Private Bank, said Asia was the fastest growing region for JP Morgan's customers in 2000 with around 70% of assets originating from the United States with the remainder from South America, Asia and other areas.

JP Morgan Private Bank is the second-largest private bank in the world with in excess of more than US$330 billion (HK$2.57 trillion) in assets.

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