Julius Baer targets entry in India private banking

The Swiss lender is serious in its expansion in the country despite being a crowded market in serving millionaires.

Swiss private bank Julius Baer is considering various options to start an onshore office to target rich clients in India and is not ruling out an acquisition to enter one of the world's hottest markets for millionaires.

India is a crowded market for wealth management, where global players like HSBC, Standard Chartered and Morgan Stanley are competing against home-grown players to serve millionaires who had a combined estimated wealth of $477 billion two years ago.

"We are seriously contemplating to open an onshore entity in India," Thomas Meier, Julius Baer's chief executive for Asia and the Middle East and a member of the bank's executive board, told Reuters in an interview in Singapore.

He said the bank believes an onshore approach has become essential for key markets like India, where there is increased demand for local financial products.

"You see a big flow of funds (going) back into India attracted by the phenomenal growth and this is likely to continue," Meier said.

In order to tap money going back into India as well as Indian domestic clients, the Swiss lender needed a proper licence to operate in India, he added.

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