EXCLUSIVE: UBP's Asia Chief Aims To Take Bank To New Heights After Winning Licence

Tom King

WealthBriefingAsia

7 November 2013

Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privee finally received its merchant bank licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore on 1 November, a move that delights UBP's Asia chief executive as the firm looks to expand.

An upbeat Stephan Repkow, chief executive for Asia at , told this publication about his optimism after securing the licence from Singapore’s regulator.

“Since last Friday we have officially commenced business as a merchant bank in Singapore. It is a great achievement for the team, in Singapore and at head-office. All of whom have been working hard to get there. We are thrilled to now start on this second phase of building our Asian franchise and being able to learn from our competitors’ experience,” Repkow said.

“We are determined to keep on building the team with exceptional and experienced professionals while bearing in mind that the key for success in a new banking business today is to maintain a reasonable cost-base while we grow our AuM and revenues,” he continued.

“This is also why we have decided to outsource our back-office and IT infrastructure. We are also working on a systematic open-architecture structure to source the best products and investment opportunities; helping to keep a lean and mean organisation and provide our clients with best-of-breed solutions,” he said.

Repkow concluded: "Servicing our clients as their trusted adviser while being mindful of our own bottom-line is the best way to develop a sustainable banking presence in Asia. And with UBP being a family-owned and run bank with very strong financials, we can also ensure that we have a long term commitment to our clients to build our Asia franchise: we understand that we are starting a marathon, not a sprint."

UBP is one of a number of European-headquartered private banks that have sought to break into the rapidly expanding Asia market for high net worth and ultra high net worth clients. The bank is competing in a market with players such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, as well as locals such as Bank of Singapore and DBS Group. UBP in early October spoke about some of its specific approaches in an interview with this publication. (See here.)

The local market has, meanwhile, witnessed some merger and acquisition speculation. Societe Generale, the French banking group, is reportedly looking to sell its Asia private bank, although UBP’s name hasn’t emerged as a potential bidder. UBP recently bought international private banking operations from UK-listed Lloyds Banking Group, seen as part of a consolidation in the Swiss and European markets Societe Generale reports its third-quarter results today and has so far declined to comment on the M&A speculation about its Asia business.