The private banking industry in China will see huge growth over the next five years as China becomes one of the largest markets of high-net-worth individuals in the world.
A report released Wednesday by the Industrial Bank and The Boston Consulting Group said the number of high-net-worth families will surge to 3.88 million by the end of 2020 from 2.07 million in 2015.
The report also said the investable assets of high-net-worth individuals will account for 51% of the total in 2020. Over that period, China’s personal investable assets will jump to 200 trillion yuan from 113 trillion yuan ($17 trillion) at a compound annual growth rate of 12%.
“Chinese banks are increasingly turning toward capital-light activities and asset management,” Chen Jinguang, vice-president of Industrial Bank, a medium-sized Chinese commercial lender based in Fuzhou, Fujian province told China Daily. “During the transition, private banking will become a crucial profit growth engine for the banking industry.”
From 2014 to 2015, among 12 banks that announced their performances in private banking, nine posted more than 20% growth in assets under management.
As more private banking clients allocated a larger part of their assets overseas over the next five years, the need for private banking will grow ever larger.
According to a recent survey of 1,074 high-net-worth individuals whose family’s investable assets exceeded 6 million yuan, 788 individuals had not yet made an overseas investment but more than 50 percent of them said they would consider it in the next three years.