Standard Chartered: StanC keen to break with local banks, play wealth manager

“If mortgage is the only thing you want to do with us, then we will want to move away. In a single-product relationship, we can’t really differentiate,” said Judy Hsu, CEO of retail and wealth management. “In a single product relationship, personal loans, or single product mortgages we can’t compete with local banks who can do much better than us.”

As the global head of wealth and retail banking, Hsu oversees assets of $367 billion which grew 35% year-on-year in 2024, according to a presentation of the bank’s annual results. Her business reported a pre-tax profit of $2.4 billion. The bank has set a target to attract $200 billion of net new money over the next five years and achieve a double-digit compounded annual growth rate for wealth solutions-related income.

Hsu said StanChart is also banking 100 billionaires of Indian origin across the world and about 30% of the net new money inflows in 2024 came from this segment.

“Half of them are our clients here. Half of them are clients outside of India. In the overall global private bank across the world we have about 7000 clients, more than half of them are billionaires,” Hsu said adding that with 30% of net new money, brisk GDP growth and a wide diaspora make India one of the bank’s most important markets.

As part of its focus on wealth management StanChart will convert 25 of its 100 branches in India to priority sectors to bank high-net-worth clients, changing some branch locations to get into prominent parts of the city. In the last two years, StanChart has added about 70 affluent banking relationship managers (RMs). In 2025, the bank plans to double its private banking RMs by adding 50 more people by June 2025.Priority Centres
“Now that we have these priority centres, we see more clients coming into branches. The role of the branch is changing into more lifestyle. I think for now, we feel that we want to focus on upgrading them,” she said.

India now ranks sixth globally in ultra HNI population and third in Asia, trailing only China and Japan. The country’s ultra HNI count reached 13,600 in 2024 and is projected to soar by 50% by 2028, according to a 2024 report by real estate consultancy firm Anarock, shared by StanChart.

“In terms of the growth trajectory, people are becoming affluent. Clients here want to book in Singapore, Jersey or UAE. So the overall strategy of who we are, which is a network bank, an affluent bank, that doesn’t change. But obviously, the nature of the clients in India is more domestic,” Hsu said.