Wealth business outpaces global economic growth

By Douwe Miedema

GENEVA (Reuters) - Growth in the wealth management business of 6 percent a year is comfortably outstripping global economic growth, with Europe playing its part in the industry's robust expansion, wealth managers said on Wednesday.

"This is the fastest growing in HSBC's business for the moment and has been so for the last two or three years," HSBC's HBSA.L Chris Meares, who will head group private banking from next month, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

The IMF estimates global economic growth of 5.1 percent this year and 4.9 percent next year.

A recent survey estimates that the total global pool of wealth -- defined as assets of over $1 million held by one individual -- will grow by an annual rate of 6 percent in the coming years to stand at $44.4 trillion by 2010.

Growth would be across the board, both in the so-called off-shore business that services capital parked abroad in for instance Switzerland or Singapore and on-shore, with private banks approaching clients in their home countries.

"Both will show growth. The market is growing and it is growing fast," said Patrick du Saint, head of private banking Switzerland at BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Mature markets in Europe also still provided scope for expansion, bankers said, defying analysts who have often criticized private banks with a too large exposure in Europe, saying growth there would be slow.

"You should not judge the growth of our market by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our country," said Christopher von Oppenheim, partner at Germany's biggest independent private bank Sal Oppenheim, which targets ultra-rich clients.

FAMILY TIES

There were some 25,000 family-owned companies in the country's medium- and smaller-sized business sector. Assuming these families comprised some 10 people, the bank's potential client base was up to 250,000 people.

And JP Morgan's (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) private bank said it worked closely together with its investment bank to tap their corporate client base as a source for future wealth management clients, for instance when they sold their company.

"These are (mid-sized) family-companies ... at some point there is liquidity (available). If you want to be there, you need a relationship before it happens," said Emilio Saracho, who heads the private bank in Europe and the Middle-East.

Private banking is a side-business for most of the leading players apart from Switzerland's UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Credit Suisse. But with growth in the sector strong, the contribution to profit was expected to go up, bankers said.

"It is only 5 percent of the group's profit. We'd love to see it at 10 percent, that just depends on pace of growth in the group," said HSBC's Meares.