Fiercely Competitive Landscape · Necessity 28 5.2 Internet+ Improves and Reforms China’s Private...

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AUGUST 2015 The Boston Consulting Group in collaboration with Industrial Bank Private Banking Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shiſting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Transcript of Fiercely Competitive Landscape · Necessity 28 5.2 Internet+ Improves and Reforms China’s Private...

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AUGUST 2015

The Boston Consulting Group in collaboration with Industrial Bank Private Banking

Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

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Contents

1. Foreword 1

2. The China Dream: To Create a Robust Private Banking Market 22.1 China’s Private Banking Market: Switching Gears and Slowing Down, but Still

Attracting Attention from Around the World 2

2.2 The Investment Category: The Rise of Equity Markets, Increasingly Diverse Options 3

2.3 Geographic Distribution: Mainly Coastal, but the Interior Is Growing Rapidly 6

2.4 A Healthy Private Banking Sector Will Help Transform and Upgrade Industry 8

3. Customer Needs: Complex and Diversified, but They Still Come Down to the Basics 10

3.1 Investment Choices: From Limited to Diversified 10

3.2 Risk Profile Changing from Conservative to Accepting a Medium to High Level of Risk 13

3.3 Products Shift from Standardized Towards Customized 14

3.4 Investment Needs Change from Servicing the Individual to Servicing the Entire Family 15

3.5 Investors Shift Their Focus Abroad 17

3.6 Service Model Transition from Mainly Offline to a Combination of Online and Offline 21

4. A Multitude of Competitors, Winning Through Differentiation in an Integrated Financial Landscape 21

4.1 Four Types of Service Channels Prevail in the U.S. 21

4.2 Amid a Multitude of Competitors, Differentiation Wins 24

5. Riding the Tides of Change, Private Banking Embraces the Internet Era 285.1 The Private Banking Industry in China Will Inevitably Embrace the Internet out of

Necessity 28

5.2 Internet+ Improves and Reforms China’s Private Banking Industry 33

5.3 Private Banking in China Needs to Develop an Internet Mindset 37

6. Conclusion 39

Appendix: A Description of the Methodology 41

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP AUGUST 2015

1. Foreword

2015 marks the conclusion of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan period and the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan period in China. As part of a collaborative effort to answer the government mandate for the next five years and promote transformation in the private banking sector, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in conjunction with Industrial Bank Co., Ltd, (IB) released this report to help the wealth management industry prepare for prosperity in the new golden decade.

Following eight years of rapid expansion, the private banking industry in China has improved by leaps and bounds. After an initial period of institution-, team-, and brand-building during which rapid growth was based on high yielding products and guaranteed returns, the private banking industry in China is opening a new chapter in its development.

Looking forward to 2020, China’s economy will move to a new normal. Reforms in financial markets will accelerate, product offerings will become more diverse, wealth management institutions will experience heady growth, the demands of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) will become more sophisticated, and technological advances will bring forth disruptive innovations. The private banking industry in China will enter a new era of fierce and rapidly shifting competition where thousands of different players will be vying to come out on top.

• As the macro economy enters into the new normal, growth in private wealth in China will gradually slow, but the absolute levels will still be staggering. Further developments in the capital markets will encourage individual investors to participate in equity investments. The eastern coastal region has a relatively strong base of HNWIs, while the inland regions will become a new growth area for private banking in the future because of the rapid growth in the number of HNWIs.

• The healthy development and expansion of the private banking sector will help markets operate more efficiently, improve the quality of life for Chinese citizens, and at the same time drive commercial banks to transform and upgrade their operations and services and improve their customer service capabilities.

• The demands of HNWIs grow more complex and diverse by the day, but they can all be traced back to the basic need for expertise in investment management and integrated solutions from financial services providers.

• The competitive landscape will remain fierce, and a more relaxed regulatory environment and implementation of integrated financial services will provide ample opportunities for the private banking industry in China to achieve differentiation and healthy development.

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape 2

AUGUST 2015INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

• The age of the Internet is making an indelible imprint on domestic and foreign wealth management. The onset of the “Internet-plus” era will improve and revolutionize the private banking industry in China. This is why we should embrace an Internet mindset to push the young private banking industry, unencumbered by old standards and norms, to new heights.

This report takes full advantage of IB’s vast private banking customer base and operating experience as well as BCG’s methodology, analytical tools, and deep insights in to the private banking industry in China from producing 15 annual reports on global wealth management and 7 annual reports on wealth management in China.

In the process of producing this report, we interviewed and researched 1,265 HNWIs and spoke with more than 50 professionals in banks, brokerages, and funds and other key industry institutions to systematically identify the the private banking industry development goals, current trends in the market, potential business models, as well as possible strategies for the Internet-plus era.

2. The China Dream: To Create a Robust Private Banking MarketThe concept of the China Dream will be the foundation of this new era. Guided by its two main goals of a strong country and a wealthy populace, China will soon enter an era where these goals are within. The values of “dreams, opportunities, and hard work” for a new era of innovation as well as the ambitious new goal of doubling 2010 GDP and average income by 2020 will provide fuel for continuous, stable economic development, gradually building a strong wealth base and creating a more affluent society.

The domestic private banking industry is a young industry that’s characterized by its daring in innovation, willingness to experiment, and ongoing improvements. Standing at a crossroads between the conclusion of the 12th Five-Year plan period and the beginning of the next five years, the private banking industry will become inextricably intertwined with the China Dream in the new era: It will become an important engine that answers the call to promote happiness for the people and drive a stronger, wealthier nation for tomorrow.

A prosperous country and its powerful citizens are the hallmarks of the rise of a new major power. The onset of a grand era will inevitably create a strong private banking industry.

2.1 China’s Private Banking Market: Switching Gears and Slowing Down, but Still Attracting Attention from Around the World

After 30 years of sustained rapid growth, China’s economy has become the second largest economy in the world. Average personal disposable income has risen past RMB 20,000, marking a significant and quick accumulation of private wealth. People have also gradually grown more aware of the need for managing their wealth. According to data from BCG’s Global Wealth Market-Sizing Database1, in the three years from 2013 to 2015, thanks to factors such as relatively high GDP growth, the demographic dividend, and rapidly

1. This report applies the income-wealth Lorenz curve to make forecasts on the number of HNW households and the size of overall wealth. The Gini coefficient for income in China, the corresponding relationship between income and wealth, population and income data for the various provinces, data on the main pool of financial assets and the percentage of assets owned by individual investors, and other data were applied to simulate a wealth Lorenz curve for the entire country and the various provinces, thereby arriving at a corresponding household and wealth distribution simulation. The main sources of data include the National Bureau of Statistics, the People’s Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and the United Nations Institute for World Economy, and the Wind database.

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape �

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP AUGUST 2015

developing capital markets, private wealth in China expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21 percent, and it is estimated total individual investable assets in China will reach roughly RMB 110 trillion by the end of 2015. Of this amount, around 41 percent of all individual assets are held by high net worth (HNW) households2, and investable assets of HNWIs will reach RMB 44 trillion by the end of the year. In the next five years, as China’s economy moves to the new normal, the rate at which individual wealth accumulates will slow further to an average compound annual growth rate of around 13 percent to RMB 196 trillion. (See Exhibit 1.)

Similarly, the rate at which the number of HNW households has been increasing will also slow down from the breakneck pace of nearly 30 percent per year in the past three years. The number of HNW households will reach an estimated 2 million by the end of 2015, spurred on in part by the stimulus package and policies the government has implemented over the past five years. In the next five years, the growth of HNWIs will slow to an estimated compound annual growth rate of 11 percent, reaching 3.5 million households. Ultra HNWIs with investable assets of greater than RMB 100 million will boast the fastest growth rate—16 percent compounded annually—followed by HNWIs with private wealth of RMB 30 to 100 million, whose ranks will grow at a 13 percent compound annual rate. (See Exhibit 2.)

2.2 The Investment Category: The Rise of Equity Markets, Increasingly Diverse Options

A breakdown of investable assets shows that, as Exhibit 3 illustrates, household savings and currency in

Exhibit 1. As China’s Economy Enters the New Normal, the Next Five Years Will See a Slower Pace of Wealth Accumulation, but Overall Pool Size Remains Formidable

Source: BCG Global Wealth Database, BCG analysis.Note: Percentages are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number, so some years do not add up to 100 percent; CAGR = compound annual growth rate.1Private investible assets include offshore assets but do not include real estate, luxury items, and the like.

Total private investable assets in China1

0

50

100

150

200

Trillion RMB

12.7%

2020F

20.8%

57%

43%

2016F

122

58%

42%

2015E

108

59%

41%

2014

91

60%

40%

2013

74

62%

39%

196

55%

45%

2019F

173

56%

44%

2018F

155

57%

43%

2017F

137

Average HouseholdsHNW Households

15%

11%

25%

18%

2013-2015 CAGR

2015-2020CAGR

2. HNW households are defined as households with investable assets of greater than RMB 6 million. Investable assets include offshore assets but do not include real estate, luxury items, and the like.

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 2. China’s Total HNW Households Grew Rapidly from 2013 to 2015 and Will Maintain a Moderate Growth Rate for the Next Five Years

Source: BCG Global Wealth Database, BCG analysis.Note: CAGR = compound annual growth rate.1HNW households are those with investable assets of more than RMB 6 million.

16%

0

100

200

300

5%

5%

12% 12%

84%84%84%

3%

4%

4%12%

12%

83%

156

2019F

12%

83%

4%

346

2018F

12%

83%

201

2017F

12%

83%

279

2016F

85%

311

Households (ten thousands)

12%

224

121

2020F2014

250

2013

5%

11.4%

29.0%

5%

2015E

11%

13%

2013-2015 CAGR

2015-2020CAGR

50%

28%

31%

RMB 6 million – 30 millionRMB 30 million – 100 million> RMB100 million

Number of HNW households in China1

Exhibit 3. Financial Products Such as Commercial Banks’ Wealth Management and the Capital Markets Will Be the Focus of Individual Investors in 2015, While the Savings Will Continue to Decline

Source: National Bureau of Statistics, People's Bank of China, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities RegulatoryCommission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Financial Stability Report, the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Asset Management Association of China, WIND, Zero2IPO Database, BCG analysis.Note: Percentages are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number, so some years do not add up to 100 percent. CAGR = compound annual growth rate.1Includes currency in circulation.

FundsBonds

Commercial Pensions

TrustOffshore Assets

2015F

108Private Equity

20142013

91

74

Household Savings1

Commercial Banks’ Wealth Management Products

Stocks

64.156.1 50.9

12.916.5

18.2

5.48.0 9.4

4.7 5.06.76.16.0

4.34.0 0.4

2014

4.0 0.4

4.0 0.2

2013

3.2 0.4

4.0

2015F

4.8 0.4

0.1

CAGR(2014-2015)

Forecast high growth rates for wealth management and capital market products

(trillions of RMB)

Savings rate will decline; commercial banks’ wealth management and capital market

investments will grow moderately (%)

129%

40%

27%25%29%15%

7%

30%

42% FundsBonds

Commercial Pensions

TrustOffshore AssetsPrivate Equity

Household Savings1

Commercial Banks’ Wealth Management Products

Stocks

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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circulation as a category have declined to 50 percent of the total, while wealth management products from commercial banks continue to grow, taking up approximately 18 percent of the total and becoming the single largest personal investment category outside of savings. Investments in capital markets, particularly equity markets, will grow rapidly.

• Savings and currency in circulation. As China’s economy slowly eases to a more stable growth rate, there will be further declines in price inflation for consumer goods and greater deflationary pressure. We forecast that the government will continue to pursue a steady, “just right” monetary policy, with an occasional fine tuning towards the “loose” direction. At the same time, as the pace of new capital market liberalisation in China continues to accelerate and the market for wealth management products from commercial banks continues to grow, we expect household savings and currency in circulation to slowly decline to 50.9 percent of all asset categories.

• Wealth management products from commercial banks. Individual investors continue to favor commercial banks’ wealth management products, which are gradually becoming a substitute for household savings because of their stable returns, ease of purchase, and implicit industry standards for principal and interest payment regardless of the actual profit or loss borne by the product. High-f lying capital markets in 2015 will attract a portion of investable assets; oversight agencies will continue to strengthen regulatory guidelines and requirements for wealth management products; and the government will also gradually wean investors from the expectations of a government bailout should anything go wrong. These developments all contribute to a further slowdown in the rate of growth in commercial banks’ wealth management products, but they will not inhibit the growth of the overall market. Wealth management products from commercial banks will still remain one of the most important investment assets for individual investors, taking 18.2 percent of all asset categories.

• Capital markets. Capital markets continue to benefit from the residual effects of government policy. Since the Chinese stock markets began to turn around in the second half of 2014, there has been a surge in investor interest. Taking the early 2015 stock-market resurgence and mid-year fluctuations into account and conducting rational analysis, we expect equity market investments (valued at market prices) and funds (measured by their net asset value) will grow along with the stock market and make up 9.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively of all assets. The bond market will remain stable at 0.4 percent. Looking forward to the next five years, further changes and greater development in the capital markets will be needed to achieve the China Dream. As an important component of the capital markets, the equity market is key. Even though short-term turbulence is unavoidable, long-term, sustainable development of the equity market will still be one of the main themes. We expect equity investments will continue to grow and become an even greater part of private wealth.

• Insurance. Benefiting from relatively high investment return levels in 2014 and a green light on the trial of tax deferred life insurance products in 2015, we expect that in the future, life insurance products will be a new niche that attracts individual investors, growing steadily to 6.7 percent of all asset categories in 2015.

• Trust. Because of strict oversight of government-trust collaborations, a relatively anemic real estate market, as well as loss of customers to third party wealth management and other financial institutions, trust products, which boasted high returns on assets and low risks in the past few years, could experience a significant decline. Currently the entire trust industry is experiencing growing pains as it transitions into the new environment with new business models and tests the industry’s new position

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

and direction in the market. We anticipate assets invested by individuals in the trust industry to rise slightly to 5 percent.

• Offshore assets. In order to diversify their portfolios and effectively lower risk as well as take advantage of growth opportunities in foreign capital markets, demand has grown in recent years to make investments in offshore assets. This has accelerated growth in foreign investments. Because of the limited capabilities of domestic wealth management institutions in foreign capital markets and a lack of knowledge of related legal and tax issues, investment in offshore assets is expected to remain steady at around 4.3 percent.

• Private equity. With IPOs restarting in 2014 and gradually moving toward a registration-based system in 2015, equity market exit strategies are viable once again. New opportunities such as a new round of reforms of state-owned enterprises, a booming mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market both domestically and internationally, and active financing operations by publicly listed companies have given private equity investments new life in a number of different industries. Because of daunting challenges such as a high risk level, high barriers to entry, and long turnaround time, private equity investments remain an investment option only for ultra HNWIs, making up around 0.4 percent of all asset categories.

2.3 Geographic Distribution: Mainly Coastal, but the Interior Is Growing Rapidly

Looking at a geographic map of the distribution of HNW households, the coastal region represents “old money3,” while the wealth of the population in the middle regions (the Yangtze River economic belt, along the Beijing-Guangdong railroad) reflects incipient growth. We anticipate that the number of high-growth and high-density regions will decrease within the next five years, with growth slowing further in wealthy regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong. The gravitational center for economic growth in China will shift toward the inland regions, with provinces and cities such as Sichuan, Henan, Inner Mongolia, and Chongqing that already have a sound private wealth base and stand to benefit most from policy changes and exhibit the greatest development potential.

To be more specific, HNW households in China are still mainly located in the economically developed locations such as areas surrounding the Bohai Sea, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta regions. BCG’s China Wealth Market Model forecasts that the average number of HNW households in the six eastern coastal regions of Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Shanghai will exceed 100,000 households in 2015. This number constitutes half of all HNW households in China, which means these cities and provinces will become the main battleground where various wealth management institutions joust over customers. Sichuan is the inland province with the greatest number of HNW households, followed by Hebei, Liaoning, Henan, Hubei, and other large, economically developed provinces. (See Exhibit 4.)

Looking at the total wealth of HNW households, households in the six provinces and cities of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shandong, Shanghai, and Zhejiang have assets totaling RMB 23 trillion, or approximately half of all HNW household wealth in China. These are the regions with the highest concentration of private wealth in China. Of these six regions, the investable assets of HNW households in Guangdong total RMB 6 trillion, which makes it the wealthiest region in China. The total of private wealth of HNW households in

3. Usually means family wealth accumulated over several generations. The majority of individual wealth was inherited.

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

relatively developed regions such as Hebei, Sichuan, and Henan also exceeds RMB 1 trillion each.

Taking the different growth potential, magnitude, and relative number of HNW households in these different regions into account, our analysis shows that the HNW households in different region exhibit different characteristics and development trends. (See Exhibit 5.) • Beijing, Guangdong, and Jiangsu represent regions (located in the upper right sector of Exhibit 5) where

the density of HNW households is high and the total quantity of private wealth is relatively large. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of wealth in these regions has gradually declined during the past three years. The impetus for growth for private wealth in these regions primarily comes from their status as political or economic centers. These regions are critical for the wealth management and private banking industries.

• Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Liaoning, and Tianjin (located in the lower right sector of Exhibit 5) represent regions where private wealth is growing relatively slowly but the concentration of the number of HNW households is high. These regions are either strong economic centers or blessed with a natural resources advantage. Even though the growth of HNW households in these regions lags behind that of the country as a whole, the higher concentration of HNW households and the relative maturity of wealth accumulation represent vast unmined potential for private banking.

• Regions such as Shandong, Sichuan, and Henan (the upper left sector of Exhibit 5) where HNW households are sparse but growing rapidly present an opportunity to provide high-end wealth management services. On the other hand, there is relatively little total private wealth in regions such as Chongqing and Inner Mongolia, which are growing at a relatively high rate. It is imperative

Exhibit 4. HNW Households in China Are Still Primarily Concentrated Around the Bohai Sea, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Other Economically Developed Regions, Making up Half of All HNW Households in China

Source: BCG analysis.

>100,000 households50,000 – 100,000 households20,000 – 50,000 households<20,000 households

Inner MongoliaXinjiang

Tibet

QinghaiGansu

Yunnan

Guizhou

Hainan

ShandongHebei

Fujian

Guangxi

Zhejiang

Jiangsu

Liaoning

Jilin

Heilongjiang

Shanxi

Henan

Hubei

Shaanxi

HunanJiangxi

Guangdong

SichuanAnhui

Tianjin

Taiwan

Beijing

Ningxia

Chongqing

Forecast distribution of HNW households in China in 2015

Shanghai

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to be first to market in these regions because they are the most likely to be positively influenced by policy changes and an influx of outside capital. Their potential for explosive growth could make them important strategic regions for private banking. For example, Chongqing is an important strategic node for the “New Silk Road” economic belt, a western hub for the Yangtze River economic belt, and a production base for the Maritime Silk Road. It is uniquely positioned as a nerve center where geographic advantages and favorable government policies will help drive stable economic growth and private wealth accumulation.

2.4 A Healthy Private Banking Sector Will Help Transform and Upgrade Industry

2.4.1 Increase Market Efficiency, Improve Living Standards, and Achieve the China Dream

Improving resource allocation across society and increasing efficiency in the financial markets are key goals for this round of economic transformation and financial reform. A well-developed private banking industry can help pool the capital of HNWIs through market forces, then optimally distribute these resources to enterprises in varying stages of development, and in different sectors of the real economy . This will help small and medium enterprises and the private sector gain greater access to opportunities and capital, allowing them to focus on their business ventures and encouraging them to innovate in this new era.

Exhibit 5. Aside from Traditional Economic Powerhouses Including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, Shandong, Sichuan, and Henan Have Also Accumulated Significant Wealth, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia and Other High Growth Potential Provinces Will Become the Focus in the Future

Source: BCG China Private Wealth Forecast Model.

10

30

20

20

30

15

60 260705040

Sichuan

Ningxia

Liaoning

GuizhouTibet

Fujian

Gansu

Hunan

Hainan

Hubei

Zhejiang

Henan

Hebei

Jiangxi

Guangxi

Shanghai

Yunnan

Xinjiang

Shanxi

Anhui Shandong

GuangdongInner Mongolia

Beijing

Tianjin

Chongqing

Shaanxi

Qinghai

Heilongjiang

Growth in HNW households 2012-2015

Number of HNW households per 10,000 households

Jilin

Jiangsu

National average: 43

National average: 17%

Overall, the Yangtze River economic belt and other inland regions that stand to benefit from government policies have the greatest growth potential

Size of bubble represents the overall investable-asset pool of HNW households

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China is also a country where saving has become a tradition, with the current household savings rate exceeding 40 percent. Limited investment channels have kept the fast growing personal wealth in savings accounts, real estate, the stock market and other limited investment options. However, since individual investors usually do not have wealth management expertise, volatility in the market can bring great uncertainty to returns. China’s population is also aging, which means the preservation of personal wealth is becoming a more important issue of livelihood for the average citizen. A professional private bank can offer effective investment portfolios, aggregate wealth management in one place, and provide expert wealth management advice according to the diverse investment needs and risk profiles of Chinese citizens, thereby achieving wealth preservation and gains for these citizens that outpace inflation.

2.4.2 Encourage Commercial Banks to Transform and Upgrade Their Customer Service Capabilities

There are dramatic changes sweeping China’s banking industry. Factors such as the marketization of interest rates, financial disintermediation, and cross-sector competition have coalesced to force commercial banks in China to adapt and transform quickly. Private banking, thanks to its low capital requirements, steady returns, and low risk-capital ratios, has become a strategic focus for commercial banks looking to transform themselves. Take Bank of America, a bank with a universal business model, as an example: its global wealth management unit grew steadily during the past three years to constitute more than 20 percent of the bank’s total business; Credit Suisse Group, which stands out for its service to HNWIs, saw private banking business contribute approximately half of all net profits in the past six years. From a risk perspective, the ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets for HSBC’s private banking unit was 1.7 percent in 2014, while return on risk-weighted assets was 2.9 percent, tops among the four HSBC business divisions. These examples have made the wealth management business very attractive for commercial banks looking for ways to adapt to marketized interest rates, optimize business operations, and improve their sales mix, as well as insurance companies, brokerages, funds and other non-bank institutions looking to become major players. (See Exhibit 6.)

Exhibit 6. Wealth Management and Private Banking at the World’s Leading Banks AllExhibit Characteristics Such as a Stable Income and Steadily Increasing Contributions

Source: Bloomberg, BCG analysis.Note: Percentages are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number, so some years do not add up to 100 percent.

Wealth management business graduallycontributing more to Bank of America (%)

10.4

16.0 18.318.8

19.8 18.6 19.3

19.5 20.3 21.4

34.3 34.0 34.8

5.68.8

2013 20142012

Retail Mortgage Services

Global Banking

Global MarketRetail BankingGlobal Wealth & InvestmentManagement

117 116 109

135 134 126

49525251

41

36

0

50

100

150

0

20

40

60

Net Income, Private Banking(hundred million Euros)

2009 2010 2011

Percentage of overallnet income (%)

201420132012

Private banking contributed approximately50% of net income at Credit Suisse

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Private banking can also be an effective way to upgrade the service standards and capabilities of financial institutions. Since private banking by nature places the bank in a representative and fiduciary position, it requires the bank to adhere to a trustworthy investment management style that insists on maximizing the customer’s interests. To provide this kind of service, commercial banks need to acquire not only an accurate insight and understanding of their customer’s needs, but also to thoroughly research products, services, and various tools available in the financial markets. As HNWIs’ demands grow ever more diverse and complex, it will be necessary to provide a full range of financial and non-financial services to remain competitive. Banks will need to continuously improve their capabilities in product innovation, asset allocation, foreign markets, and taxes and legal and other non-financial services.

Finally, private banking can help different business units and subsidiaries work together more effectively. Private banking tends to be complex and specialized, which means it’s not simply an upgraded version of retail wealth management services. It should be considered as a catalyst for resource integration throughout the entire bank or even the entire parent corporation, helping to promote effective cross-boundary, cross-institution, and cross-sector cooperation. By gradually transitioning from a service model centered around selling products toward a business model driven by consultation, private banking can directly serve customers, serve as an intermediary, and coordinate various offerings within the bank , providing specialized products and services that cover retail, corporate, investment banking, financial markets, and more, making it a better value proposition for the customer while expanding the bank’s role in the customer’s wallet.

3. Customer Needs: Complex and Diversified, but They Still Come Down to the Basics

The demands of China’s HNW customers are growing more complex and diverse by the day. These demands can be categorized into 6 different trends: More diverse investments, increasing risk tolerance, greater demand for customized products and services, increased need for integrated products and services, a greater awareness of foreign investment opportunities, and a greater reliance on digital delivery of services. All these new trends can be traced back to the customer’s basic need for expertise in investment and wealth management and integration from financial services.

3.1 Investment Choices: From Limited to Diversified

The source of wealth for private banking customers is shifting from creating a successful business to making successful investments in financial markets. Our research shows that the primary source of wealth for 47 percent of all customers interviewed is from operating a company, which means business owners are still the predominant group among current HNW customers. However, 25 percent of all customers interviewed revealed their main sources of wealth are the financial markets, a dramatic increase from the findings of our last study. The main driving force behind this change is the bull run experienced by the secondary markets, in particular the stock market, that sustained itself over a period that began last year and continued until mid-2015. The rally drew a significant number of investors to the market and created generous returns for them. (See Exhibit 7.)

Private banking customers are expanding their investments from savings, fixed income products (including fixed income-like trust products), and real estate into other diversified fields such as secondary markets, cash management, trust, and private equity and venture capital. Compared with the results of our earlier study, stocks have vaulted from sixth place to become the most common investment asset held

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

by customers. Two driving factors have contributed to the customer’s need for diversification: First, the wealth management industry has evolved from its early stages and is gradually becoming more developed, benefitting from favorable government policies and a healthy, competitive market with a greater variety of products; second, after meeting their basic demand for wealth preservation, customers want to build a portfolio of investment products from numerous different sectors to ensure that they strike the optimal balance between wealth preservation and capital gain. (See Exhibit 8.)

• Our studies show that the average customer interviewed has their hand in four different investment categories. Approximately 65 percent of customers interviewed are invested in the stock market, and approximately 61 percent and 56 percent of customers interviewed are invested in cash management and fixed income products, respectively. Customers still want to ensure liquidity while earning a principal guaranteed return through investing in such products. In addition, 42 percent of customers interviewed invested in trust products, primarily because of the industry’s previously mentioned implicit standards for payment of principal and interest regardless of the product’s actual profit or loss, which can meet customers’ need for a steady, principal guaranteed return.

• HNW customers with investable assets of greater than RMB 30 million prefer stocks, trust, and real estate as their primary investment channels. Compared with other customers, these customers are also relatively less likely to invest in cash management and fixed income products, mainly because HNW customers have already accumulated significant wealth and are actively searching for substitute products with slightly higher return and risk profiles. (See Exhibit 9.)

Looking at the investment plans of HNWS next year, stocks still top the list, with trust, fixed income, and cash management maintaining their positions. Private equity funds will become an emerging hotbed for investments; while policy changes in recent years continue to dampen enthusiasm for investing in real estate. (See Exhibit 10.)

Exhibit 7. The Main Source of Wealth for Private Banking Customers Is Changing fromCreating a Profitable Company to Profiting from Investments in Financial Markets

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Note: Some figures do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Most important source of wealth

100%=1,265 interviewees

Creating a ProfitableCompany

Financial MarketInvestments

Wages and benefits

Real estate Investments

Inheritance

Other

9%

599

1%

310

118

11%

92

47%

7%

25%

138

8

Distribution of profession

19%

7%

8%

9%

10%

2%

Business owners (includingentrepreneurs and businessmen)

Senior Management at an SOE/professionals and executives (senior executives,

white collar workers, gold collar workers)

Investment Professionals

Other professionals such as lawyersand doctors

Freelancers, including actors, athletes, artcollectors and more

Full time housewife

Other

46%

100%=1,265 interviewees

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 8. Private Banking Customers’ Investments Are Expanding from Cash Management and Fixed Income Toward Secondary Markets, Cash Management, Trust, PE/VC and More.

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

Investment products currently owned by private banking customers100%=1,265

interviewees

5%

17%21%

0%2

4967131

216 189

450407

265

818768

714

528

Total

56%

42%36% 32%

61%65%

15%10%

4%

Stocks SavingsandCash

Management

FixedIncome

Trust Insurance RealEstate

PE/VC InternetFinance

RealInvestment

Derivatives OffshoreInvest-ments

BundledInvest-ments

Other

Exhibit 9. HNW Customers with Investable Assets of More Than RMB 30 Million AreWilling to Actively Seek Substitutes with Higher Yields. Stocks, Trust, and Real EstateAre the Mainstays

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

14%

18%

2

65%

60%

4%

0%

9%

4%

65%

40%

30%

37%

97

36

17%

619

147

671

668

172

412

380

43

187

305

43%

62%

49%

29%

33%

40%

5%

0%

10%

14%

18%

18%

34

70

42

0

24

13

44

78

95

100

102

116

147

42%

100%=1,027interviewees

100%=238interviewees

StocksSavings and Cash

ManagementFixed Income

Derivatives

Real Investments

Trust

OffshoreInvestments

BundledInvestments

PE/VC

Real Estate

Internet Finance

Insurance

Other

Real Investments

PE/VC

BundledInvestments

Derivatives

Internet Finance

Insurance

OffshoreInvestments

Fixed Income

Savings and CashManagement

Real EstateTrust

Stocks

Other

Private banking customers with 6 to 30 million in investable assets: cash management and

fixed income still the main play

Private banking customers with more than 30 million in investable assets: significant

increase in interest in PE/VC

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

The increasingly diverse investment needs of the private banking customer are placing higher demands on private banks and other wealth management institutions, and these entities have responded by creating open product platforms. Leaning on both internal innovation and collaboration with outside institutions to create diversified products will become one of the main ways for private banks to quickly enhance their competitive advantage.

3.2 Risk Profile Changing from Conservative to Accepting a Medium to High Level of Risk

After surviving the financial crisis, investors have become more aware of possible risks, with their corresponding risk profiles leaning toward risk-averse and conservative. However, as China’s capital markets developed and boomed in 2014, investors are beginning to become more risk-tolerant.

• Our study shows that 68 percent of customers interviewed expressed a willingness to accept a certain level of risk, a dramatic increase from the previous study; an additional 14 percent of customers have a relatively high level of risk tolerance and are willing to take on relatively greater risk, they can also accept that generating greater returns means assuming relatively higher risk. Among all customers interviewed, 47 percent and 40 percent of customers took on medium- and high-risk products, respectively. Compared with customers with investable assets of RMB 6 million to 30 million, HNW customers with more than RMB 30 million in investable assets are more aggressive in going after medium- and high-risk products, with more than 41 percent and 48 percent responding that more than 30 percent of their portfolio is composed of medium- and high-risk products, respectively. (See Exhibit 11.)

Exhibit 10. Stocks, Trust, and Fixed Income and Cash Management Are Hot, PE/VC Is on the Rise

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

8%13%14%

9%17%20%

25%28%31%

38%39%

Stocks Trust FixedIncome

Products(such asBonds)

SavingsandCash

Management

PE/VC RealEstate

Insurance InternetFinance

Derivatives RealInvestments

OffshoreInvestments

BundledInvestments

Other

55%

0%

100

168

259

113

220173

313348

393

485499

696

3

Future interest in investment products from private banking customers

100%=1,265interviewees

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

• Looking at the investment plans of HNWIs for 2016, a significant percentage of them expressed plans to increase their holdings in medium- and high-risk products, with 56 percent of all customers interviewed planning to increase their holding in moderate risk products and 37 percent of customers planning to increase their holdings of high-risk products. This is evidence that as long as they maintain liquidity and principal guaranteed return on a small portion of their investable assets, HNWIs are more motivated and active in seeking out medium- and high-risk products. (See Exhibit 12.)

As the economy enters a new normal and wealth management and financial markets become increasingly mature, private banks need to help their customers gain a rational understanding of the relationship between risk and reward, help them manage their exuberance so that they can make rational investment decisions, and find a reasonable balance between low- and high-risk products.

3.3 Products Shift from Standardized Towards Customized

In the early stages of development for the wealth management market, regulatory requirements and the limited design capabilities of financial institutions limited wealth management institutions to offering specialized products. As a result, standardized products dominated the market. Standardized products could meet the initial needs of private banking customers just starting to dabble in this sector of the market, because their needs were relatively simple and focused on preserving and steadily growing of their wealth. However, as government policy has opened up in the financial sector and the market has become more developed, the needs of HNWIs have become more diversified and complex. After a certain amount of accumulation of wealth, they are no longer satisfied with standardized products. This development

Exhibit 11. Higher Net Worth Means Higher Risk Tolerance

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.1Savings and cash management, commercial banks’ wealth management products, and the like.2Fixed income, trust, internet finance, etc.3Stocks, PE/VC, real estate, derivatives, etc.

Investable assets RMB 6 million to 30 million:low to moderate risk products, primarily

average risk

Investable assets greater than RMB 30 million:prefer moderate to high risk products

38%49%

38%

35%

30%

30%

20% 13%

18%

7% 8% 14%

Relatively Little(10-30%)

Almost none (<10%)

Do not own thisasset type

Relatively Little(10-30%)

Almost none (<10%)

Do not own thisasset type

Low risk1 Moderaterisk2

High Risk3

A lot (>31%)

100%=1,027interviewees

34% 41%48%

34%

39% 21%

21%13%

23%

11% 7% 8%

A lot (>31%)

Low risk Moderaterisk

High risk

100%=238interviewees

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has forced wealth management institutions to actively seek a way to differentiate themselves within a homogeneous market and provide customized products and services that address the needs of HNWIs. (See Exhibit 13.)

At the same time, we can see diverging trends from different customer groups. Customers with investable assets of RMB 6 million to 30 million focus on return on assets. As a result of this focus, standardized products with guaranteed liquidity and relatively high returns will be enough in most cases to meet their expectations. HNWIs with investable assets of more than RMB 30 million place greater emphases on cash flow and total returns, which means that more often than not, these customers would rather select products and services that can be customized to suit their needs.

3.4 Investment Needs Change from Servicing the Individual to Servicing the Entire Family

A high percentage of HNW customers are members of a family, with 84 percent of customers interviewed already married with children. Legacy wealth has become one of the most important concerns of customers. Around 21 percent of customers with children are already making wealth inheritance arrangements, while 37 percent have not yet begun but will consider making wealth inheritance arrangements in the near future. This means family legacy management is a field with a very bright future moving forward. (See Exhibit 14.)

Family wealth accumulation, security, and legacy are the most important family wealth management services to private banking customers. Our study this year has found that a rapid accumulation of wealth has given rise to concerns about the further accumulation of wealth and security and is the key reason

Exhibit 12. Investors Are Becoming More Aggressive

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities,and autonomous regions in China.

Future investment trends for assets with different risks100%=1,265

interviewees

10%24%

21%

56%37%

69%

37% 39%

7%Reduce holdings

Increase holdings

Maintain holdings

Low-risk products Moderate-risk products High-risk products

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 13: HNW Customers with Investable Assets of More Than RMB 30 Million Favor Customized Products

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

Financial services needs of private banking customers

100%=1,265interviewees

10%

70

1%4%

200

5%

11%

207

4%

12%

274

4%

18%

466

5%

32%

571

10%

35%

623

9%

40%

Providehigh

performanceinvestment

products

Investmentportfolio

managementand

integratedwealth

planning

Customizedproducts

Priorityaccess

tobankingservices

713

7%

49%

>30 million

6-30 million

100%=238interviewees

Financial services needs

50%51%

0%7%21%26% 26% 23%

39%

Customers with > RMB 30 millionin investable assets

49%60%

5%14%39%

22% 15%44%

100%=1,027interviewees

Customers with RMB 6-30 million in investable assets

Company financing

or invest-ment

banking services

Family wealth

manage-ment

Discretion-ary

manage-ment

Offshore financial services

Other

Provide high perfor-mance

investment products

Investment portfolio manage-ment and integrated

wealth planning

Custom-ized

products

Priority access to banking services

Company financing or investment

banking services

Family wealth

manage-ment

Discretion-ary

manage-ment

Offshore financial services

Custom-ized

products

Investment portfolio manage-ment and integrated

wealth planning

Provide high

perfor-mance

investment products

Priority access to banking services

Discretion-ary

manage-ment

Family wealth

manage-ment

Company financing

or investment

banking services

Offshore financial services

Other

Exhibit 14. A High Percentage of HNW Customers Have Families; Legacy ServicesHave Huge Potential

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Note: Some figures do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Marital status and children Legacy arrangements

36%

37%

21%

5%

Yes, already arrangedIn process but not yetcompletedNo, will consider in thenear futureNo plans

1%

84%

10%

6%

100%=1,265interviewees

100%=1,063interviewees

Single

Married,no children

Marriedwith children

other

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why customers are paying attention to family wealth management services. Ensuring education and living standards for their children and maintaining the sustained operations of their family business are the two most common topics that come up when interviewed customers mention family wealth management. (See Exhibit 15.)

The family wealth management sector is still in its infancy. Domestic customers don’t understand very much about the characteristics and meaning of such services, but they have a strong desire to learn more. More than 80 percent of interviewed customers don’t use and don’t know much about family trust and family offices, but more than 80 percent of these customers want to know more about them. (See Exhibit 16.)

3.5 Investors Shift Their Focus Abroad

Many private banking customers have already transferred assets overseas. They are now more focused on how to make investments in foreign markets. The main reasons that private banking customers invest overseas are the security of assets, capital gains, and hedging against risk in domestic financial markets. Data from our study this year shows that more than 40 percent of private banking customers have already taken advantage of offshore wealth management products and services, an increase from the previous study. (See Exhibit 17.)

• Age and profession are important when a customer considers investing overseas. Young investors and professional investors take more frequent advantage of offshore wealth management products and services. (See Exhibit 18.)

• Our analysis of customers’ goals for investing overseas shows that achieving relative segregation of

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 15. Private Banking Customers Say Legacy Arrangements and Children’sLiving Standards and Education Are Most Important

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities,and autonomous regions in China.

Reason for considering legacyarrangements

Most important thing aboutlegacy arrangements

0.1% 1

263.8%

10014.8%

20129.7%

22433.1%

32147.4%

36954.5%

6.2%

1

177

148

30.7%

0.1%

8.9%

32047.3%

26.1%

46.5% 315

42

21.9%

208

60

100%=677interviewees

100%=677interviewees

Rapid accumulation of wealth has given rise to concerns

about the further accumulation of wealth and security

Children have grown up, need to consider legacy

issues ahead of time

Signals from the government (i.e. inheritance tax)

Family business entering a transition phase

Ensuring children’s education and living

standards

Maintaining the family business’ operations

Take children’s interests, plans into account

Dividing wealth among family members (cash,

stock, real estate)

Control over wealth

Fair distribution of wealth to children

Taking both children and grandchildren into

consideration

Other

Tax and legal considerations

Possible issues within the family

Other

INDUSTRIAL BANK PRIVATE BANKING • THE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 16. Family Wealth Management in Its Infancy in China, with Little Popular Understanding but a Lot of Interest

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG, total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Note: Some figures do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Family trust Family office

9.6% 121

40.3%

16613.1%

78962.4%

70.6%

17814.1%

14.6% 185

16613.1%

76360.3%

10.1%

15011.9%Currently using, will definitely keep using

Currently using, but only satisfies some needs

Have not used and do not know much about, but want

to learn

Do not use and do not want to use

Other

Don’t know

Exhibit 17. The Diverse Investment Needs of Private Banking Customers Are DrivingDevelopment of Offshore Wealth Management Services

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Note: Offshore wealth management includes using domestic currency while in China to make investments in foreign markets as well as making investments in foreign markets using foreign currency while out of the country.

Offshore wealth managementservices usage

Asset pool size of interviewees whouse offshore services

58%

34%

8%

Never

Occasionally

Oen

2015

6%More thanRMB 100 million

RMB 30 million toRMB 100 million

RMB 10 million toRMB 30 million

RMB 6 million toRMB 10 million

2015

40%

34%

20%

100%=1,265interviewees

100%=535interviewees

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domestic and foreign assets in order to improve safety and security is the primary reason that private banking customers invest overseas, with more than 38 percent of interviewed customers listing it as a reason. Close behind are capital gains and hedging domestic risk, at 37 percent and 32 percent, respectively. Another important reason that HNW customers with investable assets of over RMB 30 million make offshore investments is to facilitate their overseas business development. (See Exhibit 19.)

In terms of investment allocations, assets are distributed in a relatively even manner. Stocks, financial derivatives, and real estate are the three most commonly held product categories. In the future, HNWIs will still focus on stocks, financial derivatives, and real estate when making offshore investments. (See Exhibit 20.)

On the services front, advice on how to allocate offshore assets and legal services are the foreign wealth management services customers are most interested in. This is because domestic private banking customers have limited understanding of offshore investment products and need advice from a wealth management institution on asset planning and allocation. HNW customers with investable assets of greater than RMB 30 million are most interested in the tax and legal implications of offshore investments because they want to avoid unnecessary investment related disputes and problems caused by a lack of knowledge of foreign investment markets. (See Exhibit 21.)

Canada, Hong Kong, and the U.S. are the three offshore markets China’s HNW customers favor the most. Hong Kong has a strong professional base in the financial services industry and is one of Asia’s most important centers for offshore private banking business. Hong Kong is also an RMB offshore center and has a favorable tax environment and talent pool, in addition to being Mainland China’s geographic neighbor, all of which makes the Hong Kong ideal test bed for commercial banks in China to experiment

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 18. Young Investors and Professional Investors Make More Frequent Useof Offshore Wealth Management Products and Services

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

53% 47% 42%28%

47% 53% 58% 58%72%

Use offshorewealthmanagementservices

Haven’t used offshore wealthmanagementservices?

Use offshorewealthmanagementservices

Haven’t used offshore wealthmanagementservices?

60 or older

108312502

42%

288

21-29 30-39 40-49 50-59

55

69%55% 55%

37%22%

31%45% 45%

60% 63%78%

89576239

40%

121

Professionalinvestor

Otherprofessional

FreelancerExecutiveBusinessowner

Housewife

118 95

Age: young investors are more willing toaccept offshore investment products

Profession: higher ratio of professionalinvestors use offshore wealth

management services

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

Exhibit 19. Security, Privacy, Capital Gains, and Hedging Against Domestic Risk Arethe Biggest Reasons Why Private Banking Customers Make Offshore Investments

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG, total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

18

1%63%

29

5%

44

8%

56

10%

118

155

29%

172

32%

173

32%

196

37%

Securityand

Privacy

CapitalGains

Hedgeagainst

DomesticRisk

Immigrationor

Children’sOverseasEducation

FacilitateOverseas

Expansion

WealthPreservation

Arbitrageand

M&AOpportunities

TaxRelief

LegacyArrangements

CapitalGains

Securityand

Privacy

FacilitateOverseas

Expansion

Hedgeagainst

DomesticRisk

Immigrationor

Children’sOverseasEducation

WealthPreservation

Arbitrageand

M&AOpportunities

TaxRelief

PensionLegacyArrangements

OtherPension Other

Securityand

Privacy

CapitalGains

Hedgeagainst

DomesticRisk

Immigrationor

Children’sOverseasEducation

FacilitateOverseas

Expansion

WealthPreservation

Arbitrageand

M&AOpportunities

TaxRelief

LegacyArrangements

Pension Other

201

38%

22%

100%=535interviewees

Main reasons for private banking customers’offshore investments

Divided according to investable assets

More than 30 million in investable assets

1%1

50

36%11

13%

28

4538

27%20%

18

9%

12

8%5

4%

32%

48

35%

49

35%

6 to 30 million in investable assets

3%13

1%8%18 55%

32

128

32%

146

37%

152

38%38

10%

90

23%

117

30%

124

31%

100%=396interviewees

100%=139interviewees

Exhibit 20. Offshore Investment Product Demand Will Remain Focused on Stocks, Derivatives, and Real Estate in the Future

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

Derivatives(Futures, Options)

20%

Real EstateForeign Stocks

39% 36%

ForeignCompanies

Bonds NotInterested in

OffshoreWealth

ManagementProducts

Other0%

16%

32%26%

411

3

326

498461

207254

100%=1,265interviewees

Demand for offshore wealth management products

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with providing private banking offshore services. Canada, Hong Kong, and the U.S. are major destinations for immigrants as well, which makes these places very attractive for HNW customers with child education and family immigration needs. (See Exhibit 22.)

3.6 Service Model Transition from Mainly Offline to a Combination of Online and Offline

The capability and quality of service provided by the private banking account management team is still key to attracting HNWIs: 54 percent of HNWIs list the capabilities and expertise of the private banking relationship manager as their primary criterion for choosing a wealth management institution; 65 percent of private banking customers will still use their relationship manager as their primary contact in the future. However, although these things have not changed, “change” has already quietly taken over. Our study shows that with China jumping in to the Internet era, HNWIs are also gradually becoming the “digital generation:” nearly 80 percent of China’s HNWIs take advantage of a digital financial product or service. Among those who still have not done so, 35 percent of HNWIs have clearly indicated their willingness to try. (Regarding HNWIs’ demand for digital services, please see Section 5 of this report, “Riding the Tides of Change, Private Banking Embraces the Internet Era.”)

4. A Multitude of Competitors, Winning Through Differentiation in an Integrated Financial Landscape

4.1 Four Types of Service Channels Prevail in the U.S.

After nearly 70 years of development, the high-end wealth management market in the U.S. is dominated

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Exhibit 21. Customers Are Most Interested in Offshore Asset Allocation andLegal Advice

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

170

13%

214

17%

334

26%

347

27%

356

28%

397

31%

411

32%

OffshoreAsset

Planningand

Allocation

OffshoreTax

Services

OffshoreInvestment

LawServices

InvestmentImmigration

OffshoreAsset

Planningand

Allocation

OffshoreProduct

Recommen-dations

andAccess

ForeignEducation

forChildren

OffshoreMedical

Care,Housing

NotInterested in

OffshoreWealth

ManagementProducts

OffshoreInvestment

LawServices

ForeignEducation

forChildren

OffshoreTax

Services

OffshoreProduct

Recommen-dations

andAccess

OffshoreMedical

Care,Housing

NotInterested in

OffshoreWealth

ManagementProducts

InvestmentImmigration

414

33%

100%=1,265interviewees

100%=238interviewees

Private banking customers’ demand foroffshore wealth management services

Customers with investable assets ofmore than RMB 30 million

11%

25%28%

15%

30%35%36%

27% 27

84

36

67

85

71

5964

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by four main service channels that service HNW customers: Family office, private banking and trust, full-service brokerages, and registered investment advisors. (See Exhibit 23.)

• Family office: These institutions are positioned to provide integrated wealth management services for the super wealthy, aimed at ultra HNW customers with investable assets exceeding RMB 100 million. Some of the integrated services they provide include investment management, tax planning, charity donations, family trust, legacy management, enterprise operations, and related legal processes. Because family offices operate as independent professional institutions, they are very exclusive and private compared with other high-end wealth management services. But because most HNW households in China are still first-generation entrepreneurs or wealth creators, and also because of a relative lack of a sound legal foundation in this arena, China does not at present offer the ideal environment for family offices to flourish, and thus this market segment remains in its infancy.

• Private banking and trust: These institutions are positioned to serve customers with investable assets exceeding RMB 30 million through open product platforms. The three primary areas of focus for these companies are basic account services, professional investment advice, and integrated value-added services, which help these companies become do-it-all institutions that have the financial and non-financial needs of HNW customers covered. Some examples, among many others, include JP Morgan Private Banking and Northern Trust.

These institutions require, at minimum, the capability to handle basic account services. However, wealth management services cannot stop at product sales. Professional advisors with expertise in

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Exhibit 22. More Than 80 Percent of Offshore Assets for Private Banking Customersin China Are Located in Canada, Hong Kong, and the U.S.

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Note: Calculated according to total number of answers, there were 880 answers in total. Figures do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

3%4%

7%

7%

100%9%

12%

15%

U.S. HongKong

Canada TheU.K.and

Ireland

AustraliaSwitzerlandOtherEuropeanCountries

SingaporeJapanand

SouthKorea

SouthAmerica

Taiwan OtherAsian

Countries

Macau Others Africa Total

23%

0%1%1%

8%

2%2%2%

100%=535Interviewees

Offshore asset centers

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integrated consulting services should be made available to address customers’ complex needs, and they should be equipped with the ability to make customized changes to or tailor products and services.

Addressing the needs of ultra HNW customers is often similar to addressing the needs of a corporation. The service supplier needs to provide services that cover the HNW customer’s family business throughout its lifecycle by coordinating resources across the supplier’s parent group. Some examples of these services include checking accounts, loans, direct financing, IPO and market value management, merger and acquisition advisory and other non-retail services.

As the need for non-traditional financial services continues to grow among HNW customers, service providers also need to provide services such as offshore investment, legal and tax advisory, immigration and child education, high-end health care, luxury investments, and more.

• Full-service brokerages: These institutions are positioned to serve the general affluent public and some HNW customers with investable assets of RMB 1.5 million to 30 million. Since these brokerages have a strong background in investment banking and the capital markets, their expert integrated advisory services is their core competitive strength. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch are standard bearers for this model. These institutions provide relatively low transaction fees and convenient channels to the general affluent population in order to satisfy their daily trading and investment needs. For HNW customers, these institutions provide full coverage financial services such as loans, investment advisory, and investment banking with the support of other departments of the parent group.

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Exhibit 23. The U.S. Market Serves HNW Customers Through Four Main Channels

Source: BCG analysis.Note: Numbers and categorization on this page are only for illustrative purposes.

Retail WealthManagement

Internet Brokerage

Do It All Brokerage

Discount Brokerage

MainlyCommercial

Banks

Target Customer Segment (Investable Assets)

75 150 300 600 3000 6000 150,000 (Unit: Thousands of RMB)

Cor

e V

alue

Pro

posi

tion

Regional Brokerage

Target Customers for High EndWealth Management

Registered Independent Advisors (RIAs)

Affluent Public Wealth Management FamilyOffice

Private Bankingand Trust

MainlyInvestment

Banks

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• Independent financial advisors: Depending on each person’s level of expertise and reputation, these advisors can serve customers ranging from the general affluent public to ultra HNWIs. These advisors are not a part of any financial institution. They do not specialize in asset acquisition or product creation and design. Rather, they provide investment advice and planning for their customers, and some advisors provide discretionary services. Their independent and objective investment consulting advice is the basis for differentiation for these advisors. The disappointing performance of traditional large investment banks during the 2008 financial crisis had many HNW customers turn toward independent financial advisors in order to receive more objective wealth management and investment advice. This unique business model has become ubiquitous in the U.S.

4.2 Amid a Multitude of Competitors, Differentiation Wins

Currently, private banking services from commercial banks dominate China’s wealth management market for HNW customers. Approximately 87 percent of the customers interviewed chose private banking services. This is followed by brokerages and trust at 6 percent and 4 percent respectively, and a small number of interviewed customers chose asset management products and services provided by insurance companies or third party wealth management institutions.

On the topic of how different wealth management institutions are viewed, our study this time around discovered HNW customers commonly hold the belief that private banking is a safe and stable provider of financial products. Some mid-to-high-net-worth customers (approximately 33 percent) have already begun seeing private banking as a versatile integrator of wealth management services, proof that the integrated financial services capabilities of private banking is being gradually recognized. Brokerages, insurance companies, trust, and other non-bank financial institutions, due to their various specialty products, are still seen as providers of a single type of product to a particular market. Third-party wealth management institutions are seen as similar to the private banking services of commercial banks, participating in the market as a supermarket for financial products or an integrated wealth management services provider. (See Exhibit 24.)

Looking toward the future, as marketization deepens in the financial industry, the distinct advantages of holding a license will gradually diminish and disappear, and various institutions will develop according to their own strengths and weaknesses in a more hospitable regulatory environment, forming differentiated market positioning on products and services.

4.2.1 Commercial Banks Take Root in the High End Wealth Management Market to Become Full Service Private Banking Providers

Commercial banks occupy a dominant position in high end wealth management services thanks to brand recognition, trust among potential clients, basic banking services, and integrated financial capabilities. Looking forward, private banking at commercial banks will claim an obvious advantage in capital, products, talent, resources, channels, and other areas, further consolidating their business model as an all-around service provider.

• Strategic investments. A long investment cycle and slow returns are characteristics of the wealth management industry; on the other hand, China’s banking industry is facing a transformation dilemma and searching for new fronts to create new business. This is why among the various types of financial institutions, commercial banks are the most motivated and have the deep pockets necessary to become fully invested in the high end wealth management market.

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• Building an open product platform. Private banking service providers at commercial banks increasingly recognize the importance of an open product platform to private banking. In the future, they will step up efforts to introduce external specialty products and take advantage of their own brand, channel, customer base, basic banking services and other advantages to further strengthen the foundation of their own open product platforms. Banks that are majority owned by other financial institutions can collaborate with other departments in the parent group to gain access to a more diverse product lineup. At the same time, banks with a sound foundation in asset management are actively building their ability to customize private banking products, providing the foundation from which truly exclusive product design and creation can be realized.

• Building expertise. Compared with funds, brokerages, and other financial institutions, investment advisory has always been a weak point for private banking services at commercial banks. This is why the continuous development of expertise, including building advisory teams focused on asset allocation, investment consulting, product selection, product creation and design and more will be essential to the development of private banking.

• Parent-group collaboration to provide integrated services. For non-investment related services, the private banking service provider can collaborate with investment banking and other subsidiaries to provide integrated financing services that satisfy the various needs of customers who are business owners. At the same time, the private banking service provider can also collaborate with law firms, accounting firms, and other outside experts to provide value-added services and enhance customer stickiness.

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Exhibit 24. HNW Customers with Investable Assets Greater than 30 Million Think of Private Banks as Financial Product Platforms and Integrators, Think of Non-bank Institutions as Suppliers of Single Products

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

What role customers believe privatebanks play

What role customers believe non-bankfinancial institutions play

28% 33%

30%34%

42%33%

Provides wealth management products with steady return on asset

Integrator of a diverse lineup of wealth management services

>30 million

Large scale platform for financial products

238

6-30 million

1027

100%=1,265interviewees

16%

33%28%

35%

41%

35%

64%57%

43%32%

8%8%

Brokerage Insurance Trust Third Party

“Provides solitary product typein a single market sector”“A large financial supermarket with a variety of financial products”

“Provides solitary product typeIn a single market sector”

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• Multi-channel integration to enhance the customer experience. In the Internet+ era, we’ve already seen domestic banks place more emphasis on innovation and integration of channels, improving customer experience, and management capabilities through digital delivery methods.

The development advantages described above will help commercial banks to set their sights on becoming one-stop, full-service private banks with the potential to dominate the high end wealth management market in China for years to come.

4.2.2 Third-Party Wealth Management Companies: Full Service and Independent Advisory Differentiate the Fittest Survivors

The third-party wealth management market is severely fragmented, and most institutions are small and scattered. Some of the less disciplined third party wealth management companies will not survive the approaching shakeout, while the leading third party companies will target high-end customers with open product platforms and objective, insightful consulting and advisory services. Since most third parties do not have the ability to design and create a product, they are more motivated to build an open product platform that allows them to take advantage of external products to provide asset allocation solutions for their clients. Third-party wealth management institutions have always emphasized cultivating talent in the advisory services department. They are also more flexible, currently less regulated, and able to acquire financial licenses that allow them access up and down the value chain where big investment banks, big asset management firms, and big wealth management firms play, allowing them to gradually acquire the ability to design and create products. They can also provide flexible offshore services that have endeared them to many HNW customers. If leading third-party wealth management institutions can overcome disadvantages such as low brand recognition, an unclear regulatory future, and a relative lack of institutional resources, then they can have a direct impact on the private banking business of commercial banks.

4.2.3 Trust Companies: Obvious First-to-Market Advantage, First Signs of the “Product Specialist”

In the past, thanks to the advantages afforded by their licenses, trust companies were first to market with products that offer high return on assets, which allowed them to form a sizeable following among HNW customers via word of mouth. However, as more and more signs point to the industry breaking its unspoken code of paying principal and interest no matter the outcome, government-trust collaboration and intermediary business for banks are becoming more strictly regulated, at the same time that an anemic real estate market and other factors are forcing the industry to transform in order to survive. We forecast that most trust companies will take advantage of their first-to-market position in the asset management sector and combine it with their expertise in particular industries such as real estate, infrastructure construction, equity trust, capital markets, and alternative investments to establish strategies in private equity investment services and provide competitive products in niches of the market where the need for financing is still huge. Commercial banks remain conservative, and the capital markets and high-yield debt markets are still in their early stages, thereby remaking themselves as product specialists in the high-end wealth management market. A few companies will strategically plan for the high-end wealth management market by maintaining their advantages on the asset management front while simultaneously building sales and exclusive private banking teams to service HNWIs.

4.2.4 Fund Companies and Their Subsidiaries: Make Up Lost Ground, Challenge the “Product Specialist”

Investment research capability in the secondary markets is the traditional strength of fund companies.

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In today’s environment, where capital markets are expanding at an ever-accelerating rate, fund companies will have the opportunity to differentiate through product innovation, and thereby jockey for position in the wealth management market. Subsidiaries of fund companies hold licenses that limit little and allows much, allowing them to “do it all” financially. This means that these companies can provide “trust-like” private equity investment services with high rates of return and gradually attract some HNW customers. However, since fund companies and their subsidiaries face double trouble in the form of few channels and a lack of a high-end customer base, it is imperative that they collaborate with financial institutions that already have a large customer base. There are already examples of third-party wealth management companies purchasing shares of fund companies and fund companies making strategic alliances with Internet companies. For this reason we forecast that fund companies and their subsidiaries will directly challenge trust companies in the future to serve as product specialists in the high-end wealth management industry.

4.2.5 Brokerages: Very Fragmented, Large Brokerages with Dual Advantages in Investment Research and Investment Banking Will Follow the U.S. Full-Service Brokerage Model

Currently, wealth management services at brokerages remain in their infancy. The core job remains selling products to customers according to their asset pool size and risk profiles. These services mainly cover the wealth management needs of the general affluent public and a few HNW customers. We forecast that brokerages focused on traditional broker related services will either transform into discount brokerages or focus on wealth management services for the general affluent public through integrating online and offline channels. As regulatory oversight continues to loosen at an accelerated pace and the capital markets speeds up their rate of development, large brokerages with advantages in both investment research and investment banking could make a transition toward full-service institutions. From a product capability perspective, brokerages are the financial institutions closest to the capital markets, which is why they have superior capital market investment research capabilities. As the government continues to relax the scope of possible investments, brokerages can act as both product distributors and product designers and creators. The Securities Association of China is planning to allow brokerages to provide account management services, which will be especially beneficial to large brokerages with large customer bases and strong investment research capabilities. With their ability to provide integrated financial services, brokerages can target the high ratio of entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises among China’s HNW customers by providing asset and liability management services that cover the company’s life cycle through their investment banking units, forming a unique competitive advantage.

4.2.6 Insurance Companies: Giants Slowly Entering the Market, Playing the Roles of Both Product Specialist and Investment Advisor

Even though insurance-owned asset management companies obviously lag behind other financial institutions in the high-end wealth management sector, as China’s insurance industry transforms and the pace of innovation in the finance industry quickens, the scope of insurance services is extending from traditional basic security to the realm of wealth management. This development is changing insurance from a risk management tool into a wealth management tool that combines wealth accumulation, legacy, and tax shelter functions. In addition, the broad experience of insurance-owned asset management companies, in offshore investments, together with their long history of investing in the fixed income, infrastructure construction, and other sectors, will gradually help these companies secure a position in the high-end wealth management market. We forecast a development model that combines both product specialist and advisory services roles.

Taking all these developments into account, we forecast competition in China’s high-end wealth

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management market will continue to be spirited and contentious, but different financial institutions will continue to develop in different directions, gradually forming a complex landscape where players both compete and collaborate with one another.

5. Riding the Tides of Change, Private Banking Embraces the Internet Era

5.1 The Private Banking Industry in China Will Inevitably Embrace the Internet out of Necessity

“Internet finance” has been a trendy phrase in the entire industry since 2013. Amid all the sound and the fury, Internet finance continues to be trumpeted as a method to serve the mass market, while private banking services that target HNWIs seems to have been left at the wayside. But when we inventory the development trends of the domestic and foreign private banking industries at both the macro and micro levels, we see that private banking in China will inevitably and of necessity ride high on the next wave of the Internet era.

The effect of the Internet is most obvious from a technical perspective, which is reflected in the growing ubiquity of digital applications. However, the industry should pay more attention to the enormous power of the Internet to enable private banking to make revolutionary changes to its business model.

5.1.1 Market Development: The Private Banking Business Model Desperately Needs Transformational Change

Compared with the overall dominance of commercial banks in China’s financial sector, China’s private banking industry, which began back in 2007, has barely made an impact among HNWIs. BCG’s analysis shows that China’s main private banking service providers have penetrated only about 8 percent of the market4.

But China’s private banking industry’s traditional business makes it diff icult to rapidly achieve advantageous scale. BCG’s project experience has taught us that private banking account managers at commercial banks struggle with maintaining a high number of customers per manager and administrative matters that detract from sales time. Rapid development and high-quality service has become tremendously difficult under the traditional model, which is why the entire industry is straining to take advantage of the Internet to address its pain points.

5.1.2 Customer Needs: Offline Services Are Still Core, but Internet Innovation Is Already Deeply Ingrained

The service capabilities and quality of a private banking account management team is still at the core of the needs of HNWIs: 54 percent of HNWIs rank the capabilities and expertise of the private banking account manager as their primary criterion for choosing a wealth management institution; 65 percent

4. Estimate made based on data from the May 2014 survey conducted by the Innovation department of China’s Banking Regulatory Commission, forecasts made by BCG’s global wealth model, and results from this customer survey. The average HNW customer uses two private banks.

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of private banking customers will still use their account manager as their primary contact in the future; 55 percent of private banking customers want their account managers to take the initiative in offering products and services based on their deep insights into their customers.

But while these things have not changed, “change” has already quietly taken over. Our study shows that with China jumping in to the Internet era, HNWIs are also gradually becoming the “digital generation:” Nearly 80 percent of China’s HNWIs currently take advantage of a digital financial product or service. Among those who have not, 35 percent have clearly indicated a willingness to try. In direct contrast to the impression that Internet finance mainly serves the masses, 36 percent of HNWIs have at one time or another purchased Internet financial products. Peer-to-peer (P2P), crowdfunding, and other digital products known for their affiliation with the masses have also attracted investment from more than 10 percent of HNW customers. (See Exhibits 25 and 26.)

In addition, digital delivery of services has already touched every aspect of the industry value chain, from learning more about the product mix to transaction execution. Customers are particularly excited about customized investment advice and online transactions, with more than 40 percent of customers holding high expectations for the digital delivery of these services. (See Exhibit 27.)

Once private banking customers begin to combine the Internet with their services, there’s no stopping or turning back. In our studies and project experience, private banking customers described their ideal Internet-enabled financial services: “Activate your mobile phone, a warning message pops up telling me my private banking investment analyst has changed his recommendation on certain investments to ‘sell.’ With a few swipes, I’ve already checked my investments, analysts’ recommendations, and related news and information. Then I video-conference my account manager, discuss potential portfolio adjustments with him, receive his final suggestions, then confirm my decision on my mobile via electronic signature or fingerprint verification. Then I can immediately check my new portfolio.” We sum up this digital dream as

Exhibit 25. What’s Changed and What Hasn’t About Private Banking Customer Needs in the Internet Era

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG, total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

Offline service still at the core ofmeeting customer needs

However, the Internet era is herein force

54% of customers list the capabilities and expertise of the private banking account manager as their primary criterion for

choosing a wealth management institution

75% of private banking customers are using a digital financial product or service.

Among those who still haven’t, 35% have clearly indicated a willingness to try

36% of private banking customers have purchased Internet financial products

44% of private banking customers want digitally delivered custom-tailored

investment advice

65% of private banking customers will still use their account manager as their primary

contact in the future

55% of private banking customers want their account managers to take the initiative in

offering products and services based on their deep insights on their customers

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Exhibit 26. Some HNW Customers Seek P2P, Crowdfunding, and Similar Products and Services

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.1Online personal wealth management and automated investment advisory platforms such as eastmoney.com, xueqiu.com, Taobao’s wealth management platform, and more.

Use of digital products and services

0%0

51

5%

60

6%

62

7%

98

10%

115

12%

123

13%

123

13%

217

23%

342

36%

414

44%

E-banking Third partypayment

InternetFinanceProducts

AutomatedWealth

ManagementPlatform1

P2PInvesting

CrowdInvesting

P2PFinancing

Crowdfunding OnlineConsulting

Internet Micro-

investments

InternetMicro-

financing

Other

509

54%

100%=948interviewees

Exhibit 27. Custom-Tailored Investment Advice and Online Transactions Are the Internet Services Customers Want Most

Source: Survey of HNW customers by Industrial Bank and BCG. Total sample size is 1,265 customers taken from 18 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.

26%

246

25%

11%

105

239

25%

410

43%219

23%

223233

279

29%125

13%

416

44%

290

31%

358

38%

373

39%

24%

100%=948interviewees

Services that interviewees most want to see from private banks, culled from a list that can be realized in the near future

Check on portfolios and transactionsProvide the best investmentsolution

Interaction and communication

Transaction execution

A list of past transactions

and the ability to

check bills

Portfolio tracking

Contract information on wealth

management products

Custom-ized

investment advice

Portfolio analysis and a demonstration of investment

scenarios

Market information

and research

data

Tracking favorite invest-ments

Interactive communi-cation with financial experts

Video conference and real time chat with account

managers

Interact with friends and

colleagues on social media

networks

Online transactions

(such as making a

stock trade)

Online consump-tion and transfers

Registering for and

buying new products

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“even while you sleep, we’re still at work managing your wealth.” We can see that in order to achieve this digital dream, private banking needs to design a completely new end-to-end interactive process around the customer’s needs and apply Internet technology on a massive scale to achieve a whole new experience. This technology is already available. (See Exhibit 28.)

5.1.3 Technological Applications Give Wings to Innovation in Private Banking

Use technology to achieve your dreams: The all-new experience in the Internet era for private banking customers will be a tribute to the beauty of technology. An increasingly diverse assortment of connectable gadgets continue to make strides in smart technology, automated learning, and real-time processing; application scenarios are renewed and extended. The convenience and intelligence ushered in by technology is on display in every corner of our lives. Cloud computing and other distributed technology allows for continuous optimization of computing power, timeliness, and cost at an infrastructure level. Big data provides a killer tool for precise analysis. The extension and refinement of social media platforms provide an efficient and convenient platform on which to communicate with private banking customers. And the construction of smart channels allows customers to seamlessly transition between different channels.

Aside from the customer experience, the power of technology will also be readily apparent in fueling innovation in private banking business models. The scale required for rapidly business development used to be fundamentally incompatible with the customization that the customer demands. In the Internet+ era, however, technology can help bridge this gap. By using technology to lower cost and support customization, private banking will find what it is searching for: new avenues for innovation in private banking. We can

Exhibit 28. The Ideal Wealth Manager: “Even When You’re Sleeping, We’re Still at Work Managing Your Wealth”

Source: BCG analysis.

All new customer experience for private banking customers in the Internet era

Customer

Accountmanager

Accountmanager“Suggest

adjusting investment strategy on XX to ‘sell’.”

“The stock market has been very volatile recently, it may be a good idea to lower your stock holdings”

“Go ahead. I may need cash in the near future, please ensure a certain degree of liquidity.”

Automated warnings when analysts change their

recommendations

Get the latest information on your portfolio, investment

advice, and related information on the go

Videoconference to touch base with

account manager

Immediately receive the latest investment

suggestions for examination

Use electronic signature or fingerprint to confirm execution of the suggestions and see their

impact on your portfolio

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see that pioneers in the industry are already riding high on the waves of the new technological era. (See Exhibit 29.)

5.1.4 Time Is of the Essence in Embracing Internet+

Globally, private banking is an age-old business, but it shows no signs of its age under the new normal. On the contrary, we’ve seen foreign private banking operators awaken and respond to the new era, devising innovative new and disruptive business models for the Internet age. Decision makers and experts have made bold proclamations, and video clips of innovations adapting to the Internet continue to appear on the market.

• In April 2010, Wegelin & Co., the world’s oldest Swiss private bank, started NettoBank AG in order to provide online assessments and corresponding product and asset allocation suggestions for HNW customers ages 40 to 50. That has effectively lowered the cost of servicing customers while improving efficiency. In its first year of operation, the service attracted more than 1,000 HNW customers and accumulated Sfr 65 million in assets under management.

• Fidor Bank, established in Germany in 2009, came up with Fidor Smart Community, an Internet-based service that has social media characteristics. HNW customers can participate in discussions within the community of the company’s online platform and receive corresponding “bonuses,” rate products and account managers, access P2P lending services, and even actively play a role in product design and creation. Fidor Bank currently has 70,000 customers and 250,000 community members in Germany and was honored as a Global Growth Company during the 2014 World Economic Forum.

Exhibit 29. Technology Makes the “Dream Journey” Possible for Private Banking Customers in the Internet Era

Source: BCG analysis.

Past Present Future

SmartDevices

ApplicationScenarios

Infrastructure

AnalysisCapabilities

Social MediaPlatform

ChannelIntegration

A desktop or laptop with standard configurations

Occasionally search for related information

Internal computing capabilities limited by technology and cost

Linear results obtained according to prioritized data

and analysis tools

Seldom discuss investment ideas with industry peers

face to face or on the phone

Independent online channel, skips account

manager

Full featured smart devices are everywhere

Can use immediately, an integral part of the daily life

Real-time link with cloud for unprecedented processing

power

Acquire intelligent insight from in depth analysis of

big data

Can quickly access the opinions and ideas of other investors

through social forums

True multi-channel, helps the account manager

Highly automated with automatic learning and

real-time processing capabilities

Provide guidance throughout the day and make continuous contacts

with various communities

Flexibly and effectively acquire need capabilities (app store, cloud front)

Self-learning, intelligent recommendations, embedded into reality augmentation technology

Verify investment philosophy and content with industry peers in open or exclusive social groups

Automated multi-channel, directs and optimizes interaction between

account manager and customer

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• Covestor, founded in 2007, has pushed the boundaries of the social media platform in the Internet era. On their platform, customers can learn from the investment strategies of star money managers and high flying amateurs alike and even sync and duplicate their portfolios. To date, Covestor has attracted more than 80,000 online subscribers and shared investment strategies valued at over $500 million.

Private bankers have this to say about embracing the Internet era:

“Customers want customized advice, and they also want to meet with their private banker several times per year. On the other hand, they don’t want to have to call the account manager every time something comes up. If the customers are willing, some aspects of their portfolio that we used to control will gradually be handed off to be managed by other channels.”- International Private Banker

“In business models of the past, private bankers would visit with the customer to discuss investment choices. Times have changed, and we cannot continue to use this solitary model. Some shrewd customers want to be able to effectively monitor their portfolios. This means your tools must be in sync with online market information. Other customers want information from different sources. This is something we need to work toward in the future.”- Helmut Bernkopf, Head of Private Banking at UniCredit

A rapidly developing private banking market calls for a new business model; HNWIs are still highly reliant on offline service teams, but at the same time the Internet plays a big role in their lives. As technology continues to mature and give wings to innovation, pioneers in the industry march ahead with the goal of gaining advantage in the new round of competition. China’s private banking industry must embrace the Internet, but how?

5.2 Internet+ Improves and Reforms China’s Private Banking Industry

Technology often brings opportunities to innovate that can improve an industry by leaps and bounds or disrupt its existing order and upend it completely. This is true for China’s private banking industry in the Internet era. Looking to the future, we will see the Internet inextricably intertwined with private banking at every corner of the industry. Summarizing BCG’s global research and project experience, we forecast that the private banking industry can innovate in at least 29 different ways. During this process, we can see the Internet improving existing mechanisms and revolutionizing new capabilities. (See Exhibit 30.)

5.2.1 The Internet Will Rapidly Improve the Traditional Model of Private Banking

In foreign countries, many leading private banks have already applied the possibilities of Internet technology to improving their current business models and thereby taking an early lead in the market of the future. These improvements are mainly centered on addressing the weak links in the traditional business model, such as customized investment advice, investment portfolio analysis and simulation, real-time interaction, and so on. Banks such as UBS and DBS were first to apply big data technology to provide customized investment advice and monitor market trends. They also set automatic alarms sent to the customer when account managers change their investment advice. Swissquote Bank and BNP Paribas developed apps that support analysis and simulation of quantitative investment portfolios on smart phones. Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch is focusing on promoting virtual interactive technological applications that allow customers to communicate with their account managers from anywhere at any time via video conferencing. Credit Suisse takes it one step further and provides an end-to-end mobile

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service platform for its private banking customers, with coverage extending to every major link of the information acquisition, allocation advice, portfolio monitoring, and transaction completion processes. (See Exhibit 31.)

5.2.2 The Internet Will Trigger Profound Changes in the Private Banking Industry

The unrelenting tides of change brought on by the Internet has led to an in-depth decomposition of the private banking value chain. In foreign countries, financial innovations such as financial technology (FinTech) continue to spring up out of nowhere and encroach on private banking’s turf. These financial innovations are targeted toward the weak links of traditional financial institutions, such as information acquisition, investment advice, value added services, portfolio management and more, winning over customers with a superior experience and low prices. They are on their way to becoming competitors that the indigenous dwellers in the private banking industry cannot ignore. (See Exhibit 32.)

In the investment portfolio arena, financial technology companies such as Easyfolio and Wealth Front have come to the forefront with convenient service and low fees as their core competitive strengths.

• Easyfolio, created in Germany in 2014, is a simple online investment platform that mainly offers investors three ETF funds with different risk profiles. A simplified investment strategy helps customers control transaction costs—compared with actively managed funds in the same sector, Easyfolio’s funds can cut costs by 52 percent, and investors can flexibly switch among the three different funds.

• FinanceScout24, also founded in 2014, positions itself as a full-service online financial investment

Exhibit 30. Looking Toward 2020, the Private Banking Industry Must Leverage theInternet to Improve and Reform

Source: BCG research.

22.

23.

24.

25.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

26.

27.

28.

29.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Win overcustomer

Customerprofiling andinvestment

planning

Investmentresearch

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

Productsuggestion

and selection

Monitoringand

reportingProduct

development

Bank and wealth management consultant attract customer’s attention through social media platform

Customer makes referrals through WeChat, Weibo, LinedIn, or other private networks

See ratings on private banking wealth management consultants at popular websites

Selects highly rated consultant and private bank with attractive products and services

Contacts consultant via WeChat, Weibo, and other platforms, videoconference with consultantt

Identify and verify customer via digital chanels

Create online profile of customer and assess risk tolerance

Automate wealth and tax planning through multivariable screening

Make target asset allocation the basis for discussion

Set interaction method, including channel, frequency, and more

Discuss the customer’s specific needs

Digital platorm conducts integrated research on stocks and funds

Browse the latest research results on online video site through open research platform

Discuss investment research findings in online community

Get access to non-traditional investment products through special platform

Follow popular investments in online community to get inspiration for investments

Customer actions, channel use completely transparent to wealth management consultant

Through following the customer’s social network, consultant gains deep insight into customer’s investment philosophy

Make portfolio investment proposal most suitable for the customer according to his needs based on data analysis

Use tablets, videoconference, or other methods to discuss the proposal

Use tablets, smart phones and similar devices to reach an agreement and make a purchase order

Show multidimen-sional analysis of investment portfolio on tablet

Compare differences with the portfolios of peers and the community

Mobile device sends automated notification to customer on predefined events

Contact customer to analyze the situation and discuss what to adjust

Receive feedback on product from social network and other platforms

Discuss the unique characteristics of the product and customer needs in related online communities

Test reception of new investment product in communities of investors

Customize investment products or funds for individual investors online

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Exhibit 31. Credit Suisse – End-to-End Mobile Private Banking Service Platform

Source: Credit Suisse official website, news search, BCG analysis.

•“My Portfolios”

Key module Special capabilities

First released iPad APP, will follow up with smart

phone and webpage versions

“Watchlist”

“Markets”

“Ideas”

“Collaboration”

“Trade”

At-a-glance overviews of portfolio valuations and performance liquidity and available funds to invest, asset and currency allocations, income and expenditure, and histories of transactions and cash activities

A watchlist that helps clients monitor their selected instruments across asset classes, and access related Credit Suisse research as well as third party sourced indicators

An overview of global and regional markets news, major indices and company information, and latest global asset classes performances across currencies, bonds and commodities

Access to the library of Credit Suisse Investment Strategy and Research publications

A built-in suite of collaboration tools that facilitate connections between clients and the Credit Suisse team, including instant messaging, audio and video call, screen and document sharing and document annotations

Trading in securities (equities, ETFs and REITs) and spot foreign exchange

Exhibit 32. Revolution: Financial Technology Is Deconstructing the Private BankingValue Chain, Opening the Structure, Lowering the Barrier to Entry

Source: BCG analysis of more than 70 financial technology companies, mostly from Germany, the U.S., and the U.K.

Private bankValue chain

Institution, productcomparison

Service/management

Investmentadvice

Transactionprocessing

Balance sheet/account

InvestmentPortfolio

Social networktransactions

Data analysisand research

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services provider. The company not only offers a variety of product portfolios, it also allows customers to compare insurance, investment, pension, and other financial products and provides tools for individual wealth management planning and financial advisory services.

• The UK’s Nutmeg is an online discretionary investment management company whose goal is to provide investment management services to all individuals with investable assets of £1,000 or more. The company provides convenient, transparent, low-fee wealth management services through ten different basic online portfolios, saving customers an average 0.3 to 1 percent on their investment fees.

• Wealth Front was established in 2008. The company’s main distinction is making automated asset allocation suggestions according to the customer’s financial situation, time horizon, and risk tolerance, investing in stocks, bonds, and commodities around the world, then automatically managing and if necessary continually rebalancing a diversified portfolio of index funds that track different asset classes for their customers. Wealth Front waives all consulting and service charges for accounts with investable assets of between $5,000 to $10,000 and charges a 0.25 percent annual fee for accounts with investable assets of more than $10,000.

In the financial social media platform arena, fintech companies share information, knowledge, and investment strategies through an online social platform, forming a unique value proposition, described below.

• MoneyMeets, launched in 2011, is an established German financial social media platform. It aggregates all information related to customers’ investment and bank accounts and insurance contracts in one place. All registered users can share their nest egg and education funding plans on the MoneyMeets social network platform and compare financial investment products. The platform can also rate different products according to word of mouth and customer feedback.

• Unlike the broad coverage of MoneyMeets, Owlhub, founded in 2014, focuses on the stock market. The platform encourages all registered users to make forecasts and analysis on the stock market with points or badges, thereby forming a vibrant discussion forum where expert stock pickers congregate and share their financial knowledge and investment expertise with a broader customer base.

• Wikifolio is also focused on the stock market, but the platform puts more emphasis on sharing and discussing users’ equity investment strategies. Individual investors can publish their own investment strategies on the platform and, after assessment and testing, transform mature, successful investment strategies into investable financial products.

In the big data research and application arena, fintech companies have moved on from being simple back office suppliers of technology and data to become direct providers of first-hand information and analysis to investors through big data and related technological applications.

• 2iQ Research, founded in Germany in 2002, primarily provides financial data and tools for analysis. The company enables quick access to news, updates, and industry information for more than 12,000 stocks around the world as well as the main stock exchanges and regulatory agencies in Europe, the U.S., Asia Pacific, and Africa. The company’s service also includes a variety of alpha-generating tools to screen for investment ideas and make informed investment decisions.

• Also founded in Germany, SentiTrade conducts real-time analysis on financial news by searching and counting various keywords that appear in the news. From this input it interprets the ratio of

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expectations regarding the direction of the market to ascertain market trends and behavior. The company also uses charts to track various buy and sell signals in the market, enabling investors to identify and exploit market opportunities and make investment decisions. SentiTrade also offers 24/7 customer service that includes investment portfolio reports, widgets, and strategy sharing.

5.3 Private Banking in China Needs to Develop an Internet Mindset

Private banking in the mature markets of Europe and the U.S. has weathered storms for several centuries. They have a mature and tine-tested service and management system for old money. For emerging wealth markets such as China however, “new money5” is still wealth management’s main target customer. Most first-generation wealth creators are still very actively developing. Customers with different attributes call for different business models as the rapidly developing wealth management market in China collides head-on with the Internet. That is why we are seeing the collision of identity and culture in various industries in China. Wealth management’s traditional private, face-to-face, exclusive, unilateral model is coming to terms with the Internet’s open, virtual, and ubiquitous information-sharing. (See Exhibit 33.)

In this time of rapid change and innovation, China’s private banking industry, still in its infancy, has discovered that there’s no model for success that it can directly copy and use. Rather, the industry needs to embrace the entrepreneur’s attitude, learn the key competitive elements in other sectors in the Internet era, and apply them in order to win in the market. This kind of adaptive advantage can be summarized along five dimensions. (See Exhibit 34.)

Exhibit 33. Private Banking Industry Is Experiencing a Collision and Fusion of Cultures During Its Transformation and Development

Traditional wealth management industry Internet finance innovation

• Maintain a 1-to-1 relationship“Usually, private banking customers do not want to reveal their wealth management matters to others – even to family”

•• Many people participate in dialogue and discussion

“Participate in social media, creating a transparent individual”

Secret

Private

Face to face service

Face to face contact

Exclusive

Unilateral passing of information

Collisionand Fusion

Open

Public

Digital transactions

Virtual contact: WeChat, video

Anywhere, anytime

Rapid spread of information

Source: BCG analysis.

5. In contrast with old money, means the wealth possessed by the newly affluent.

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• Experimentation Advantage: A mechanism that continuously allows for a mass number of low cost experiments and innovation. Whether it’s products or service model or sales tactics, private banks must dare to make carefully calculated trials while maintaining control over costs. They also need to be able to rapidly ramp up and roll out successful results from their trials.

• Signal Advantage: The ability to detect, capture, and decode signals that forecast change and adapt in a timely manner. Private banks need to build “antennas” that are sensitive enough to detect macro trends and changes in customer needs, thereby maintaining a firm grasp of the pulse of the market.

• Organization Advantage: Leadership, organizational structure, flexibility, and a vital talent pool. Rapidly developing private banks need a talented staff, an organizational structure, and a management mechanism that can adapt to changes, ensuring that the private bank can take bold initiatives and make large strides forward in its start-up phase.

• Systems Advantage: Manage and create a multidimensional business system, form an ecosystem, and maintain its vitality. Whether it’s creating a platform or concentrating on a niche, private banking in the future will consist of more and more open systems. Thinking about how to successfully compete and collaborate in a rapidly growing Internet financial ecosystem is a key topic for every private bank to carefully mull over.

• Eco-Social Advantage: Harmonizing the enterprise’s development goals with the direction of development of the society as well as the company’s social responsibilities. Although private banking in China is still in its infancy, it shoulders a heavy social responsibility to participate in and take an active

Exhibit 34. Private Banks Need to Focus on Building Five Major Adaptive Advantagesto Win in the Internet Era

Experimentation Advantage

A mechanism that continuously allows for a massnumber of low-cost experiments and innovations

Adaptive Advantage

4

1

2 3

5

Sign

al A

dvan

tage

Systems Advantage Eco-Social Advantage

Organization Advantage

Source: BCG analysis.

Detect, capture, and decode signals that forecast change and adapt in a timely manner

Leadership, organiza-tional structure, flexibility and vitality of the talent pool

Manage and create a multidimensional business system, form an ecosystem, maintain the vitality of the system

The development goals of the enterprise should be harmoni-ous with the direction of development of the society as well as the company’s social responsibilities

Capability

Position

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role in shaping a proper values surrounding wealth. It should strive to create a market environment and financial tools that are fair and healthy to facilitate the creation of wealth and benefit individuals in China. These are the major trends that private banks can stay on top of in the future. Finding commercial opportunities in major trends is no doubt the key to riding the tides to success.

Everything should be seen in context with its environment and history, and the development of private banking in China is no exception. Private banking is born out of the commercial banking system, and in the future it will still be closely intertwined with the wealth management business of commercial banks. However, the unique demands of HNW customers will inevitably drive private banking to change old bank systems and mechanisms and take on the role of explorer and reformer for the industry. At the same time, the development of private banking coincides with the Internet era, in which everyone is an entrepreneur and everyone is innovating, and the wealth management market for HNWIs will become a beacon for competition. Our study has shown that 41 percent of HNWIs are already willing to accept financial services from nonbank institutions, and HNWIs currently view private banks and third-party wealth management institutions in a similar light. In this competitive landscape, private banks need to discover a way to rapidly break from the mold and innovate within the commercial banking system. During this journey of discovery, China’s private banks need to build capability on two fronts: They must be adept at coordinating existing resources at the parent bank, such as retail customers and channels, corporate customers, and customers of financial market and asset management products; at the same time, they also need to be able to innovate and start up in existing, mature systems. That will increase the speed of response, improve the ability to innovate, and strengthen the flexibility of the entire organization. Some examples of this capability, among many others, include the differentiated management of talent, the flattening and modularization of the organizational structure, and iterative product development. Searching for a way to balance the two fronts so that the young private bank can be responsive and ride the tides of change to success is another challenge and opportunity for the banking industry in China in the Internet+ era.

6. Conclusion

From 2007, when China’s first private bank back launched, to today, China’s private banking industry has experienced an eight-year period during which brands grew out of nothing, customer management changed from one-size-fits-all to management by segment, products went from simple to diversified, and services went from one-dimensional to multidimensional, making considerable progress and taking the initial steps to establishing a relatively sound business and management system.

China’s private banking industry in 2015 faces a complex external environment of macroeconomic restructuring, financial market reform, more complex and diverse customer needs, and increasingly fierce cross-sector competition. China’s private banking industry will enter a new stage of development. This will require private bankers to define and position private banking in a more comprehensive and objective manner—that is, private banking should not be equated with high-end wealth management. It does not exist solely to provide high-end value-added services, nor is it a department that solely addresses the banking needs of private banking customers. The capabilities and performance of a private bank are not reflective of only the private banking business unit. On the contrary, private banking makes greater demands on the institution than traditional wealth management in terms of clients, scope, quality, staff, and more. Since private banking usually is a combination of financial and nonfinancial businesses that includes banking, investments, investment banking, wealth planning, and various value-added services that cater to HNWIs, their families, and their companies, the capabilities of the private banking unit is usually reflective of the overall professional capabilities and performance of a universal bank. This stage

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of development where grabbing market share is still the private banking industry’s primary means of rapid expansion, private banks must equip themselves to be adaptive. They need to retain a flexible and dynamic institutional mechanism to ensure the vitality of continuing business development, while not neglecting to refine management tools so that the bank can pursue the five goals of creating an open product platform, diversifying services, cultivating and attracting world-class talent, embracing an Internet mindset, and developing international capabilities. By these means they will fulfill private banking’s original goal of managing wealth for customers as they ask and trust banks to do.

Looking forward to the next five years, we believe that private bankers in the new era have the courage and determination to start from scratch and overcome the daunting obstacles and roadblocks that lie ahead. As long as they have sufficient insight into the new normal of their internal and external environments, play an active role in creating a differentiated business model, develop a sound management foundation, and cultivate sustainable competitiveness, they will create a magnificent private banking industry with Chinese characteristics.

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Appendix: A Description of the Methodology

The 2015 study of China’s wealth market by Industrial Bank Co. (IB) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) mainly examined the characteristics, investment behavior, and overall financial needs of HNWIs under the new normal economy, including demographics, sources of wealth, distribution by profession and industry, risk tolerance, investment management models, characteristics of demand for financial and non-financial products and services, reasons for selecting and leaving a wealth management service provider, instinctive positioning of the various types of wealth management service providers, the main criteria for selecting a private bank, preferences and rationales for choosing a private banking service channel, allocation of foreign assets, and the state of wealth management for household and related needs.

When choosing subjects for the study, we selected high net worth individuals (HNWIs) with net financial assets of RMB 6 million and more. In addition, in order to objectively reflect the overall picture of China’s high-end wealth management market and the differentiated needs of customers, we selected a certain number of mid- to HNWIs (with net financial assets of RMB 30 million to RMB 100 million) and ultra HNWIs (with net financial assets exceeding RMB 100 million). We used the BCG Customer Centricity Model to conduct systematic analysis of the characteristics and needs of HNW customers in China as well as their investment choices in the new normal economy.

We mainly used quantitative questionnaires supplemented with qualitative interviews. As to the sampling method, in order to ensure that the results are representative and traceable, the surveys and interviews that BCG conducted with IB in 2015 used a stratified sampling method and structure that builds on statistical theory and sampling principles. In addition to financial net assets, this methodology took into account many demographic statistical indicators such as gender, marital status, education, age, profession, and industry, and weighed results from China’s 18 most representative provinces and cities, encompassing Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Sichuan, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Henan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Hubei and other locations around the country according to the number of HNWIs and the geographic distribution of wealth, in an effort to make the study as multidimensional and full-coverage as possible. At the same time, to ensure objectivity and comprehensiveness of the study’s results, we selected a number of HNWIs who are not customers of IB's private banking sector from among the study’s 1,265 interviewed HNW customers so that we could obtain an objective assessment of wealth management institutions and customers’ own needs.

Interview questions were designed to dig deep into the overall financial needs of HNWIs, effectively covering their diverse needs for products, services, channels, suppliers, and more. At the same time we learned about the positioning and unique advantages of today’s various wealth management institutions from a customer perspective. This study also kept up with the times and designed a special questionnaire geared toward offshore asset allocation, family wealth management, digital tides of change, and other hot topics.

Through BCG’s systematic research and mass-scale in-depth research of China’s wealth management market over the past decade, we’ve accumulated research data on more than 6,000 HNW customers, building a representative, authoritative, and in-depth private banking customer survey information database, laying down the foundation for digging deeper into the data, analyzing market trends, gaining insight on customer needs, and serving the wealth management market and customers in the future.

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Acknowledgements

Industrial Bank and BCG co-authored the report. Many leaders in the field of finance from Industrial Bank and BCG made important contributions to the publication of this report. Our special thanks go out to Mr. Renjie Li, President of Industrial Bank, Mr. Jinguang Chen, Vice President of Industrial Bank, and Mr. Tjun Tang, senior partner and managing director at BCG for their support and guidance on the report.

The main contributors to this report are from the management team of Industrial Bank’s private banking unit, including general manager Mr. Ruifeng Xue, deputy general manager Mr. Yunnan Chen, assistant general manager Mr. Daobai Liu, assistant general manager Mr. Hongxing Zheng, investment advisory team leader Mr. Shaohua Zhao, Specialist Bureau team leader Mr. Wenlong Lu, as well as BCG Greater China financial institutions team, including partner and managing director Mr. David He, senior principal Ms. Yue Zhang, principal Ms. Catherine Lin, as well as project team members Dongni Zhang, Stacey Fang, Russell Yang, and David Luo. We would also like to thank BCG global expert Ms. Anna Zakrzewski, Ms. Annette Pazur, Mr. Yiqi Zhang, and more for providing extremely valuable suggestions and support during the process of writing this report. At the same time, we would like to thank every customer who agreed to be interviewed, as well as our colleagues at Industrial Bank headquarters and branch locations for their aid in the successful completion of this report.

We express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed their valuable time and experience to this report.

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Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

About Industrial BankFounded in August 1988 and headquartered in Fuzhou in the province of Fujian Province, Industrial Bank (IB) was listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange (Stock Code: 601166) with registered capital amounting to RMB 19.052 billion on February 5, 2007. For the nearly 30 years of its existence, IB has advocated the business philosophy of “Growing Together with Sincere Service” and endeavoring to offer comprehensive, top-quality, and efficient financial services for customers.

In recent years, IB has steadily improved its market position and brand image, making repeat appearances in the Global Top 50 Banks (as ranked by Britain’s The Banker magazine) and the Fortune Global 500. In the Global 2000 published by Forbes magazine in 2015, IB leapfrogged to number 73 on the list, a 170-position jump from 2013 and joined the ranks of the top 25 banks around the world. In various appraisals organized by authoritative institutions both at home and abroad, IB has also won a number of honors including the Best Chinese-funded bank, the Best Bank of Strategic Innovation, the Best Green Bank, the Bank with the Best Internet Finance Platform, the Best Bank in Inclusive Finance Practices, the Best Listed Company for Contribution in Social Responsibility, the China Charity Award for Outstanding Contribution (Organization), and the China Best Employer award. IB currently has 108 branches and 1,435 sub-branches in major cities across China.

About IB’s Private BankingIB’s private banking unit was founded in April 2011. Headquartered in Shanghai, the unit is a top-level division of IB. Supported by IB’s coverage of overseas finance, pensions, wealth management, credit cards, community banks, and more on its big retail financial services platform, IB’s private banking division is guided by the ideals of a high-end starting point, professional operations, global perspective, and specialty focus; the service standard of full-time, full-featured coverage; the goal of becoming the market leader; and the brand vision of becoming “the private bank that customers trust most.” It provides integrated, professional, and customized comprehensive private banking services to meet the multidimensional and multifaceted needs of customers.

For more detailed information on Industrial Bank, please visit http://www.IB.com.cn.

For the latest news and updates about Industrial Bank and private banking, please follow our official WeChat account. Industrial Bank’s official WeChat account name: IBdingyue; Industrial Bank private banking official WeChat account name: IB_pb.

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AUGUST 2015

Private Banking in China 2015: Navigating a Rapidly Shifting and Fiercely Competitive Landscape

About The Boston Consulting GroupThe Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy. We partner with clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their enterprises. Our customized approach combines deep insight into the dynamics of companies and markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results. Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with 82 offices in 46 countries. For more information, please visit bcg.com.

About BCG China Financial Services InstituteBCG has served the China market for over 20 years, establishing a leadership position in the financial services sector, particularly in serving the private banking industry. BCG’s financial institutions team is uniquely global, with a network of experts on private banking from around the world and a dedicated global private banking database that covers nearly 200 large private banks in different countries and regions. In addition, it is deeply connected with the China wealth management market and has conducted in-depth and long term research on the market since the very beginning of China’s private banking industry in China in order to help it grow and prosper. BCG has published 15 global wealth reports and six China wealth market reports in the past 15 years. The team in China has also helped numerous domestic banks chart and execute private banking strategies, drawing on our global experience and insights on the China market to come up with practical plans and creating value for our customers. This is why customers have chosen us to help them shape the future, together.

To find the latest BCG content and register to receive e-alerts on this topic or others, please visit bcgperspectives.com or bcg.com.cn, or contact: [email protected].

For more BCG insights and materials, please follow our official WeChat account: BCG波士顿咨询, ID: BCG_Greater_China, QR code:

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