Deutsche Bank’s EAM focus is a strategic plank in the Emerging Markets business, a senior figure says.

Deutsche Bank is aiming high when it comes to external asset managers – going after EAM partners who are in the top 10 per cent of this segment of the wealth management market, a senior executive says.

As explained here, the market for EAMs in jurisdictions such as Singapore has expanded strongly with a large and established market in Switzerland. Not without challenges – Swiss regulators, for example, in 2023 imposed new obligations on the Alpine state’s market – it is seen as a channel for revenue generation by several major banks. In Singapore, regulators have tightened controls to prevent money laundering.

The Frankfurt-listed bank went live with a dedicated EAM team in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai in January 2025. In June it went live with a team in Geneva and Zurich.

“We have clear growth ambitions and there is fantastic potential in the EAM segment we are focused on. We’ve set up our teams, and now is the time to deepen existing relationships and selectively build new ones,” Hugo van Kattendijke (main picture), Deutsche’s private banks head of external asset managers, emerging markets, told WealthBriefingAsia in a recent call.

Deutsche is proactively originating EAM partners who are top decile in their respective focus markets, he said. “We have laid the ground with our new EAM structure and now are ready to deepen our existing EAM relationships, and selectively onboard new EAM relationships,” he said. 

As reported previously, van Kattendijke said the bank sees EAMs as integral to its institutional offering for the UHNW segment, enabling the bank to reach beyond the clientele that it serves directly. Deutsche Bank’s EAM focus is a strategic plank in the emerging markets business run by Marco Pagliara, who is head of the private bank’s emerging markets head.

“We have clear growth ambitions and there is fantastic potential in the EAM segment we are focused on. We’ve set-up our teams, and now is the time to deepen existing relationships and selectively build new ones,” van Kattendijke said. 

Based in Singapore and with more than two decades’ experience in financial services, van Kattendijke joined Deutsche Bank 10 months ago from UBS/Credit Suisse, where he had been head of EAMs for APAC. Before joining Credit Suisse in 2022, he worked for more than 10 years at UBS; from 2015 to 2018 he was head of asset servicing APAC and from 2018 to 2022 he was head of financial intermediaries APAC. He joined UBS in 2011 from Vontobel banking group’s Harcourt Investment Consulting arm.

Crucial role
The role that banks provide as custodians to Asia’s external asset managers is crucial. The custody role covers everything from compliance through reporting, asset servicing – such as collecting dividends and interest payments – to settling and clearing securities. Custodians are in the business of keeping assets safe. Bank of Singapore, Lombard Odier, Standard Chartered, RBC Wealth Management and Northern Trust are among those involved in the sector. Other names in the frame include groups such as Saxo Bank and Interactive Brokers.

Van Kattendijke said there is considerable internal collaboration between the EAM and direct markets teams at the bank, and Deutsche’s main stakeholders. “The collaboration has been outstanding,” he said. 

Deutsche Bank can play to its strengths, van Kattendijke said. “You need to take stock of what the bank is very good at,” he said, referring to sophisticated lending capabilities and appetite, and depth and breadth of foreign exchange and capital markets specialists. This helps EAMs and ultra-HNW clients to use the
bank’s cross-jurisdictional footprint, he said.

EAMs are often founded by those who want to provide a more independent wealth offering, perceiving clients’ greater appetite, perhaps unhappy at the “product push” of large banks in the past. There is also a generational shift – first-generation wealth holders might have been keener on a large, familiar brand, while their successors might prefer a different approach. 

“The emergence of the EAM industry can be linked as both enabler and beneficiary with the Next Gen wealth transfer mega theme,” van Kattendijke said. “For example, generally first-gen family wealth creators are less familiar with the wealth management industry and seek out international brand names as service providers across the value chain. The next generations still value the assurance of blue-chip names, but they are increasingly open to engaging with multiple independent sources of expertise and advice, and hence the secular upward trend for EAMs.”

The partnership between banks and EAMs brings powerful benefits to clients, a blue chip bank can serve as the reassuring “anchor point” to complement independent advisory,” he said.

In creating the EAM business, van Kattendijke said Deutsche has also created a distinct career proposition within the private bank. 

“We are creating a career path for people within the bank who want to specialise in this growing market segment. So far, our team members are attracted to this segment of institutional wealth management because they can build specialist knowledge and focus on long-term relationships with sophisticated clients, delivering the full spectrum of wealth management services and capabilities,” he added.