T

he largest Swiss private banking group Julius Baer strengthened its commitment to making Asia its second home market by convening its board of directors meeting here last week, the first outside its Zurich headquarters, and announcing a faster pace of expansion in the region, including Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

Julius Baer chairman Raymond J. Baer told a roundtable discussion meeting with financial editors on Monday that his bank would upgrade its Hong Kong office to a booking center, open an office in Shanghai and a trust company in Singapore, in addition to the branch office it set up in the city state in 2006.

The editor forum capped a series of meetings and gala events organized by Julius Baer in Singapore to launch its big bang expansion programs in the region.

“Wealth creation in Asia has now outpaced that in the older, developed world and we are expanding our global wealth management, deepening and broadening our market penetration in Asia,” Raymond Baer noted.

A recent survey report by the Merrill and Capgemini consulting company projected that the assets of Asian millionaires will exceed those of their North American counterparts by 2013.

In sharp contrast to its rival institutions in Asia, the 120-year old boutique Swiss wealth manager has been in an expansionary mode over the past few years, opening an office in Singapore in 2006 and another one in Jakarta in early November, 2008, during the height of the global financial crisis.

“We started with a staff of only 30 in Asia four years ago but now we have more than 400 with a target of double digits in net new money growth,” added Thomas Meier, chief executive for Julius Baer’s operations in Asia and Mid-East.

Julius Baer globally booked US$165 billion in assets under its management as of last June.

Julius Baer, however, will not compete head on with commercial banks in Jakarta because as a private bank it focuses and services only so-designated high net-worth individuals (HNWI) with at least $3 million in net financial assets for investment.

Its services include asset and wealth management and tax planning, investment consultation and investment funds for both private and institutional investors and securities, as well as foreign exchange trading.

“We focus on the total integration of products and services, with emphasis on wealth protection and creation services, financial planning for short- or long-term goals,” deputy chief investment officer Lee Boon Keng said.

”We are able to provide investment advisory services tailored specifically to the needs of our clients because we thoroughly analyze their risk profile, financial needs and review their investment perspective every six months,” Lee added.

Julius Baer seemed to have also been benefitting from larger asset inflows because of its lack of exposure to the 2008 American sub-prime mortgage meltdown, which had damaged the reputation of several larger international banks.

Clients used to look at the largest banks as the safest but as it turned out after the 2008 financial crisis, it was the big ones that had been most exposed.

“We will act as the catalyst to bring European know-how and investment expertise to Asia and bring Asian investment opportunities to Europe,” Julius Baer Group’s chief executive officer Boris Collardi said.

None of the Julius Baer executives was willing to elaborate on the potential market and characteristics of the top rich in Indonesia because of confidentiality, but they all agreed the potential is very big, given the size and growth prospects for the country’s economy.

Raymond Baer asserted that the perception of the infamous Swiss reputation as a tax haven for ill-gotten wealth is now a thing of the past after the Swiss government enforced the Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention which binds member countries to share information in cases of suspected tax evasion and other forms of tax crimes.

This regulation obliges the Swiss government to provide administrative assistance — not only in the form of information about document forgery, but also about tax fraud — to the authorities of requesting countries.

“Our government has toughened its laws, requiring Swiss banks to know their clients [know-your-customer code of conduct] and sources of funds they intend to deposit. Would be depositors are required to divulge detailed information, which must be verified,” Baer added.