Julius Baer, the leading Swiss private banking group, has completed the transfer of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business (IWM) in India. By reaching this major milestone, the Group successfully concludes the global IWM integration which has considerably extended its footprint in key growth markets.
Julius Baer announces that, in line with its integration plans, the asset transfer of Merrill Lynch’s International Wealth Management business in India has been completed successfully. India is a fast-growing market with increasing needs for professional and comprehensive wealth management advice and services.
The volume of the asset transfer in India corresponds to more than CHF 6 billion. With this latest step, the overall client assets transferred as part of the IWM transaction have reached the target range of CHF 57 to 72 billion, albeit at the lower end.
Boris F.J. Collardi, Chief Executive Officer of Julius Baer Group, said: “We are pleased that we have now completed the transfer of the IWM businesses in all locations globally and have positioned Julius Baer as the international reference in private banking, also in the global Indian community. The transaction represents a long-term investment into our future and marks another milestone in the expansion of our successful Asian franchise.
For our business in this region, 2015 has so far been a good year: we have benefitted from the strongly improved client activities, the continued inflows from local clients as well as from the integration and subsequent rightsizing of the IWM business in Singapore and Hong Kong. Based on our rather cautious approach on the risk side, the recent turbulences on the financial markets have no meaningful impact on our Asian franchise.”
Dr Thomas R. Meier, Region Head Asia Pacific of Bank Julius Baer, added: “We warmly welcome our new colleagues and clients. The business we have acquired has already been well established in India since the 90s. We believe our clients will be served with the same passion but with a stronger focus on the quality of advice and a more comprehensive range of services, building on our best-in-class open product platform. I would also like to thank Atul Singh and the existing team for their tremendous efforts and contributions to the integration. Atul Singh has most recently been CEO of the wealth management business of Bank of America in India, since joining Merrill Lynch in 2006, and will continue to run our India business as Chief Executive Officer. Shitin Desai, a veteran banker with over 40 years of experience, will be appointed non-executive Chairman.”
The IWM integration, which began in early February 2013, is now formally closed, achieving the successful transfers of 18 local businesses across several regions.
