Rich global Indians waking up to philanthropy

LONDON: It's not usual for a wealth manager to tell his clients how to give away money their money, but that, says Peter Flavel, global head of Standard Chartered private banking "is what the clients want."

Standard Chartered has just set up its focused Global Indian private banking programme for both onshore and offshore HNIs, the second such global programme after one for Australians.

To begin with, the programme launches in UK, where Mr Flavel estimates there are 35,000 rich global Indians with more than USD 1 million to invest, that is the base level.

Says Mr Flavel, "More wealthy Indians want to do good things with their money, but don't know where to give, or how. We're in a position of being able to provide the service." So philanthropy partnership will be one of the main pillars of Standard Chartered's new Global Indian private banking programme.



"We found that demand is very strong for this kind of service, there are many who are already involved in India, and many offshore global Indians who need to reconnect," says Mr Flavel.

Besides all the usual stuff like investment management, Stanchart's programme will focus on key areas like estate planning and transfer of wealth through generations, and even an art advisory service. Estate planning has emerged as a key demand area as many first generation entrepreneurs in countries like UK are now reaching retirement age.

Standard Chartered, which hopes to integrate its large onshore presence with its global reach to tap high net worth Global Indians world wide, a market which is estimated to be growing at 15% annually.

While a host of foreign and local private banks are actively targeting India's new set of millionaires and billionaires, both in the country and overseas, Standard Chartered hopes to leverage its strong India presence to grab a chunk of this lucrative market.

Following UK, the programme will be rolled out in Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong and Miami over the next few months.
While Stancharts private banking division already provides a host of corss border and wealth management services, this is the second such country focused programme, and will involve setting up dedicated teams in every location to provide bespoke banking to Indian investors.

The client profile has an entry level of USD 1 million, to USD 10 million, with the average investor portfolio size is about USD 3 milliion. Beyond that, there is also a key client segment, which involves investors with USD 25 million and above.

It seems that rich global Indians both onshore and offshore, are waking up to philanthropy and the need to give back to society.