Julius Baer’s Thailand joint venture with local financial giant Siam Commercial Bank will maintain its expansion drive after registering resilient growth amid a pandemic.

The joint venture – SCB-Julius Baer Securities – more than doubled its assets under management, fuelled by increased investment flows, and also doubled its number of relationship managers, according to a local media report (Thai only) citing chief executive Lalitphat Toranavikrai, a seasoned Thai wealth vet who joined the firm in January during the early days of the outbreak.

SCB-Julius Baer has lofty goals to be a serious player in Thai private wealth management with a market share target of 1 trillion baht ($32 billion). This represents an estimated 10 percent of the total market ($320 billion) of wealth held by those with at least 100 million baht ($3.2 million) in investable assets.

At $32 billion, SCB-Julius Baer would become a top 20 private bank by assets under management (AUM) based on «Asian Private Banker's» 2019 league table, just behind EFG's $32.5 billion ranked at 18th.

Single Touchpoint

SCB-Julius Baer credits its success to a continued focus on three areas: expert advisory across various fields, seamless access to products and services on an open architecture platform; and high touch relationship management from talent with strong local understanding, according to a separate statement.

On the latter point, the wealth manager is rolling out a new model – «New Operating Rhythm» – which aims to cover high and ultra-high net worth clients through one, single relationship manager rather than multiple touchpoints.

Continued Strategic Expansion

Talent aside, SCB-Julius Baer is also adding investments elsewhere in its business including in real estate and content.

It recently opened a new office on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok’s central business district. And in a bid to lay the foundation of investment knowledge for future dealings, SCB-Julius Baer is also readying the launch of its «Junior Executive Program» aimed to educate second generation clients about wealth amendment concepts and practices.

«This year’s global investment and economic outlook continues to pose challenges and shifting paradigms as never before amid the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting everyone,» Toranavikrai said. «Following market fluctuations during the first and second quarter of this year, SCB Julius Baer began to see signs of economic recovery from economic indicators in the third quarter.»