Dubai: Standard Chartered Bank in the UAE is undergoing strong growth in its priority banking business as the economy is fast recovering from the impact of the global recession, said Deanna Othman, General Manager, Premium Banking, Standard Chartered UAE.
"During the last two years we have been working very closely with our existing customers, which helped us to get a number of referrals of their friends and family members. Now as the market recovers we have built up a strong priority banking customer base," said Othman.
Previously, priority banking customers were primarily investment customers. During the last few years there has been a fundamental change to this approach as borrowers, salaried customers, deposit holders and small entrepreneurs are included in the priority banking segment.
While the wealth management proposition is still very much a part of the priority banking business, the inclusion of other groups of customers in priority banking has increased the scope of reaching out the various products and services to more customers, said Othman.
The Premium Banking business in the UAE grew at a rate of 48 per cent compounded annual growth in 2010 compared to 2009.
"The Priority Banking business alone doubled its customer base while there was a double digit growth in the wealth management, assets and liabilities in line with our strategy of our relationship managers taking care of the overall relationship of the customer," she said.
Risk appetite
The bank sees clear signs of economic recovery bolstering the priority banking business in the country. A recent research by the bank on customers showed improving risk appetite and clear preference towards equities. The study showed 45 per cent of customers were interested in direct equities. The UAE-based customers represented 34 per cent of those who preferred equities across key markets UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and China.
"As our priority banking business turns the corner, we are giving much attention to the risk appetite of each of our customers. It is not one size fit all approach. Our relationship managers are trained to give great attention to individual preferences and their risk tolerance levels," said Othman.
With economic recovery gaining strength the bank said around 45 per cent of the affluent customers in the UAE were interested in investing in the property market in the UAE. A recent report published by Datamonitor showed that UAE consisted of 360,000 high networth individuals and the market was growing at a rate of 12 per cent up from 8 per cent in 2009.
For the various segments of the UAE's population Standard Chartered's priority banking business have special products and service offerings for groups such as non resident Indians, non-resident Pakistanis, non-resident Arab nationals and women customers cutting across all nationalities.
Women better investors
Othman said women are increasingly recognising the need to successfully manage personal finances.
Statistics shows that women are better investors because a research conducted on this revealed that 41 per cent of women earn higher interest on their investments compared to men across the markets.
"Studies have proven that women are better investors because they understand the product well and trade less frequently, so they do not run up expensive trading costs. They apply the buy and hold strategy and are more inclined towards their family's priorities like education, savings etc," said Othman.
