This private bank holds the largest AUM in Singapore

The ultra rich entrusted US$286.5b to it in 2016.

UBS Wealth Management claimed the top position for the fifth year in a row as the largest private bank by AUM in the region with 4.2% year-on-year (YoY) increase in AUM for HNW clients year-on-year to US$286.5b in 2016.

This year’s PBI rankings showed that Asian private banks were back in accumulation mode in 2016, with assets under management at the top 20 institutions reaching US$1.53t, up from US$1.46t in 2015 and almost on a par with the high of 2014.

“This figure is even more impressive when viewed in the context of falling brokerage revenues and clients’ response to regulatory changes,” PBI said.

Local private banks in the region continued, for the most part, to gain momentum in their YoY AUM figures. UOB Private Bank’s AUM for HNW clients rose 25% YoY to US$25b in 2016 whilst Singaporean bank OCBC (Bank of Singapore) rose from 11th place in 2015 to seventh place in 2016 in this year’s PBI ranking table with the bank’s AUM for HNW clients soaring from US$55b in 2015 to US$79b in 2016, a YoY rise of 43.6%.

DBS’ assets under management (AUM) for high net worth (HNW) clients also rose 2.8% YoY to US$81.2b in 2016.

However, this was not enough to stop it from falling from fifth to sixth place in this year’s rankings, according to the Private Banker International (PBI) Asia-Pacific AUM survey.

PBI editor Ronan McCaughey said, “Acquisitions had a significant impact on this year’s rankings. Number 14 on the 2015 PBI table, Barclays Wealth & Investment Management disappeared following its acquisition by Bank of Singapore, which jumped 11th place in 2015 to 7th place in 2016."

"Meanwhile, the purchase of Coutts International's activities in Singapore and Hong Kong by Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), one of this year’s two newcomers, pushed ABN AMRO Private Bank off the list," he added.