Standard Chartered set up its Private Banking global headquarters in Singapore on Monday, aiming to tap the rapidly growing wealth in Asia.

Besides launching its headquarters here, the Standard Chartered Private Bank will also roll out centers in nine other markets such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai and London by the end of June.

It planned to invest up to mid tens of millions of dollars in its private banking business in 2008 and 2009, said Peter Flavel, the bank's global head of private bank, at the launch of the headquarters.

"The private bank market is an incredibly attractive market for us. It's large, it's growing very quickly in our home markets. So it's a natural extension of our existing wealth management businesses," he said.

The Merrill Lynch Capgemini Wealth Report estimated that global high net worth financial wealth will grow at an annual rate of 6 percent to reach 44.6 trillion U.S. dollars by 2010. Asia is expected to reach 10.6 trillion U.S. dollars by then, close to the European wealth market, according to Singapore's Second Minister for Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who spoke at the opening ceremony.

The minister also pointed out that the silver industry was a major opportunity for private banks.

"According to one industry wealth report, the purchasing power of the over-60s has increased 7 times in the last 20 years. They would tend to have less active income and instead the desire to spend increasing proportion of their time and money on leisure. They would also often want to transfer part of their wealth to the next generation," he said.

He added that the elderly consumers would need tailored financial advice and wealth planning solutions to meet their needs.

Source: Xinhua