UBS becomes first bank to invest in Asia’s women billionaires
Swiss-based wealth manager offers UBS Unique – the first and only investment bank service tailored to needs of wealthy women
Scores of women have emerged as independent, smart and financially savvy entrepreneurs in China in recent years.
Swiss-based investment bank UBS noticed this trend and is offeringa tailored approach – UBS Unique – focused exclusively on wealthy women.
“As Asia leads the way in wealth creation, many Asian women have told us that they wish to be served in ways that focus more on family and legacy than pure investment outcomes,” Marina Lui, UBS’ regional market manager, China International, and head of UBS Unique, tells the South China Morning Post.
Globally, the number of women who are billionaires has grown by a factor of 6.6 – up from 22 in 1995 to 145 in 2014, according to the UBS/PwC Billionaires Report 2015.
It showed that in Asia, over the past 10 years, the number of women billionaires has grown by a factor of 8.3 – up from only three in 2005 to 25 in 2014, compared with the number in Europe increasing by a factor of 2.7, and by 1.7 in the United States.
The Global Wealth 2016 report published by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) into the global wealth-management industry, found that only 2 per cent of wealth managers view women as a distinct group with their own specific interests.
[We] are aiming to kick-start long-term change across the financial industry to better serve women
Lui says UBS Unique – officially launched in Hong Kong in November after being introduced earlier to wealthy women in Singapore and Japan – is the bank’s five-year initiative to tailor its services to wealthy women.