CMB opens first overseas private banking center

China Merchants Bank Co Ltd announced on Wednesday the opening of its first overseas private banking center in Hong Kong. The Wing Lung private banking center will provide integrated financial service solutions to clients in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong with the aim to help the clients create and maintain wealth.

"With the rapid growth of Chinese economy and the globalization of capital, developing cross-border wealth management businesses has become the general trend for the banks," said Liu Jianjun, executive vice-president of China Merchants Bank, the sixth largest lender in China by assets.

The Boston Consulting Group estimated that private wealth in the Chinese mainland would increase from $22 trillion in 2013 to $40 trillion in 2018, becoming No 2 in the world, right behind the US.

High net-worth families in the Chinese mainland rose to nearly 2.4 million households in 2013 from 1.5 million in the previous year, surpassing the number in Japan, said the consulting group in a report published in July.

China Merchants Bank acquired Hong Kong-based Wing Lung Bank Ltd in 2008. Liu said it is CMB's strategic target to build Wing Lung Bank into a platform of cross-border wealth management services. CMB can provide more diversified and personalized overseas investment channels as well as asset allocation methods to high net worth clients via this platform, he said.