StanChart to beef up services for affluent Asians

Lender to employ 800 staff to woo customers from 18mln rich Asians with $100,000 to invest.

Standard Chartered bank will hire about 800 staff as it expands its preferred banking service across Asia in an attempt to cater to an growing class of well-off individuals.

The new staff will be hired over the next 12 to 18 months, and will target Asia's growing professional classes, who are seen as a potentially highly lucrative customer base.

"Most focus so far has been on high-net worth individuals and the affluent who are private banking or priority banking targets... yet, emerging affluent is the fastest growing (segment) in the affluent space and the absolute size is significantly larger," said Foo Mee Har, global head of premium banking at Standard Chartered, in an interview with Reuters.

About 18m people in Asia are estimated to be affluent, according to Standard Chartered, while a further 42m are considered emerging affluent, with the affluent category expected to grow by 18pc each year for the next five years.

Standard Chartered defines affluent clients as those with $100,000 to invest.

View the full story in the Telegraph.