Bank of Singapore has been finding success in securing recurring income through its discretionary portfolio management offering, which saw total assets grow 40 percent over the last two years.
Currently, assets under management (AUM) in discretionary portfolio management (DPM) totals $7.7 billion, as of 2018-end, up more than 40 percent from 2016. DPM penetration of Bank of Singapore’s total AUM was also up from 2016’s 6.7 percent to 2018’s 7.5.
DPM penetration in the broader private banking industry in Asia is less than 10 percent.
Fixed income and ETF expertise
Although market headlines are already driving uncertainty and, thus, DPM demand, Bank of Singapore's chief investment officer Ranjeev de Mello also notes two other notable drivers he observes.
Beyond the general skittishness in the markets, there is less familiarity from clients over fixed income portfolio, which drives them to seek out management from the bank in picking out a robust bond portfolio, he said, in a «Business Times» report.
Secondly, he is also seeing interest in investing in a basket of ETFs in part to replace US-listed ETFs with UK-listed ones to avoid a 30 percent withholding tax on US-listed investments.
