The Southeast Asia region is expected to have a good growth prospect, including its wealth management market, Alvin Lee, head group wealth management and community financial services of Maybank, told finews.asia. 

Natural resources, high-tech space, a young population and growing industries in Southeast Asia (ASEAN) will support the region’s economic growth. «ASEAN will be experiencing very good growth prospects…and ASEAN will be a very integral trading partner of China, and maybe eventually India,» Alvin Lee, head group wealth management and community financial services of Maybank, told finews.asia.

Thus, Lee is very bullish for ASEAN, including its growing wealth management landscape. The total high net-worth individual’s wealth in ASEAN was recorded at S$11.44 trillion ($8.49 trillion) in 2022, with six percent growth from the year earlier, according to Maybank’s data.

Changes in Investment Landscape

The growing demand in the wealth management space is boosted by the changes in the fundamentals of the investment landscape, due to higher interest rates and cost of borrowing. So, private banks and other banks will have to look for products that generate higher returns. Meanwhile, the trade tension between China and the US will not go away in the near future.

«But there'll be more intra-regional collaboration….with intra-Asia trade increasing and deepening, this will offer more opportunities for the region’s SMEs to expand their business and unlock new business growth,» he added.

SME Growth

The increase of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the ASEAN region has also encouraged Maybank to target this segment. Those SME founders who are getting richer are targeted by the bank.

«We target to serve as many emerging mass affluent customers as early as possible to support them across the wealth continuum,» Lee said.

Islamic Wealth Management

Aside from SMEs, Maybank also sees the growing demand in Islamic wealth management. It is not only targeted at the Moslem people but also at those who want the ethical theme behind it, Lee added.

For the Asia region, Singapore is considered as a potential hub for Islamic wealth management despite its small domestic market. However, the nearly 300 million Moslem population in Indonesia could be a target as a lot of them park their money in Singapore.

AUM Growth Target

Maybank Group currently notes around S$100 billion in the wealth management AUM, with around 15 to 20 percent of them coming from the Islamic segment. In the next five years, the bank expects to have an additional two to three billion for Islamic wealth management. «It’s still nascent,» Lee responds to his not-so-ambitious target.

Currently, Maybank has three sub-segments for the wealth management business. Its private banking is serving high net-worth individuals with S$1 million of assets and above. Meanwhile, premier banking serves those with S$250,000 to S$1 million of assets, and privilege banking for the emerging affluent segments with S$30,000 to S$100,000 of assets value.