The Singapore-headquartered bank gives out more details on its expansion plans.

Bank of Singapore wants to build out its family office business as part of growth drive in the Asian city-state, its chief executive said shortly after the lender also announced moves to boost its European operations. 

“We are seeing increasing demand for families moving into the next generation to set a proper structure in place to manage family wealth,” Bahren Shaari was quoted late last week by Bloomberg as saying in an interview. “Singapore is promoting that, to let families use it as a base to manage their investment activities globally.”

The expansion will be led by Lee Woon Shiu, a managing director who currently looks after Bank of Singapore’s wealth planning and trust solutions, Shaari said. While the bank doesn’t plan to substantially increase the number of relationship managers it employs from about 400 now, it aims to double assets under management to $500 million per banker over the next three to four years, he was quoted as saying.

The expanded family office business in Singapore will focus on rich families especially from China, Europe, and the Middle East, who are looking to invest in the Southeast Asian nation. The Singapore government provides incentives including tax exemptions for funds managed by family offices for both offshore and onshore vehicles. That offers the advantage that the offices won’t pay Singapore tax on most of its investment gains, he said.

BoS has $100 billion of assets under management. Its AuM has been boosted by parent bank OCBC's purchase of Asia-based private banking businesses of Barclays. 

As reported by WealthBriefingAsia and its sister news service, Bank of Singapore appointed Anthony Adriano Simcic in March from HSBC Private Bank in Luxembourg. Rival DBS has also pushed to develop banking services to Asian and other clients in London.