While some lenders have found it an uphill climb to build private banking operations in Asia, a Chinese player is entering the fray.

China Merchants Bank has rolled out a new private banking center in Singapore and has the ambition to be the top player of its type in Asia, according to an interview with a senior executive this week.

China Merchants Bank vice president Liu Jianjun was interviewed on Bloomberg Television, saying: “Our ambition is to become the best and the largest private bank in Asia.”

Liu said the lender manages $232 billion of assets in onshore accounts in mainland China, serving about 59,000 wealthy clients. He said he hoped that by setting CMB up in centres such as Singapore and
Hong Kong his bank would be the first choice for those seeking to put money outside the country. Such an ambition will pit his lender against lenders such as Bank of China (Hong Kong), ICBC - China’s largest bank by assets which has developed a wealth management offering – as well as lenders such as OCBC (parent of Bank of Singapore), United Overseas Bank, DBS, and Western-based players such as UBS, Julius Baer, Citi Private Bank and JP Morgan Private Bank.

The drive into such a market will be challenging, however. A number of foreign-owned private banking operations in Asia have been sold to domestic players in a round of consolidation moves in part driven by the struggle to build critical mass of business. Lenders such as Barclays, Societe Generale, ABN AMRO, ANZ and Royal Bank of Scotland have sold private banking businesses over the past few years.