Business

Thursday September 17, 2009

StanChart beefing up priority banking

By LAALITHA HUNT


It wants to double customer base, relationship manager force in three years

KUALA LUMPUR: Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd expects to double both its priority banking customer base and relationship manager force over the next three years.

Consumer banking country head Tiew Siew Chuen said while priority banking was a significant contributor to and a high-growth segment of the consumer banking business, doubling the number of its relationship managers to 200 was part of the bank’s strategy to expand in Malaysia.

“Malaysia is strategically important to the bank’s consumer banking business as the country has a key role in capitalising on the recovery of the regional and global economies,” she told StarBiz yesterday.

According to Singapore-based Standard Chartered Bank premium banking global head Foo Mee Har, despite the uncertainty in the current economic environment, there continues to be a huge growth potential in the segment of affluent individuals in Asia, tipped as the fastest growing segment in the world.

From left: Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd consumer banking for Malaysia country head Tiew Siew Chuen and Singapore-based Standard Chartered Bank premium banking global head Foo Mee Har at an interview on Wednesday. - Starpic by Ricky Lai

“Research shows that the affluent segment in Asia is growing at a compounded annual growth of 12%, triple the rate of Western markets, while Asia’s share of global household wealth was expected to double to US$14 trillion by 2012,” Foo noted.

She said Malaysia had more than 400,000 affluent residents and the new priority banking re-launch yesterday was the bank’s global roll-out, which included countries such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Taiwan and South Korea.

Meanwhile, Tiew said as part of its expansion strategy, the bank was offering many “first-in-market” benefits, such as reward points, for all banking products including credit cards.

She said priority banking customers would also be able to open international banking accounts remotely either via the Internet or at the nearest priority banking centre, without having to travel to another country.

“All priority banking customers are also recognised globally and have access to over 200 priority banking centres worldwide,” Tiew noted.

The bank also plans to expand its priority banking centres in the Klang Valley, Penang as well as Johor to become hubs with a dedicated and mobile team of relationship managers, investment counsellors, insurance, treasury as well as mortgage specialists.

In terms of product offerings for its affluent customers, the bank will focus on its recently-launched foreign currency retail bond and mortgage product pegged to the three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rate.

Both these products saw good take-up despite the slow economy, Tiew said, adding that the bank would also continue to launch structured deposit products with different investment themes, such as gold or oil, to cater to the priority banking customers’ needs as well.

On another note, she said the bank’s non-performing loans, which saw a slight increase of about 2% in the first quarter due to the slowdown, would likely stabilise moving forward.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story