StanChart refreshes India strategy to target wealthy

The number of individuals with more than $30 million of investable assets is expected to grow by 50% between 2023 and 2028, according to Knight Frank’s wealth report

Standard Chartered Plc is refreshing its strategy to attract rich customers in India, expanding into smaller towns and boosting the number of relationship managers by almost a third.

“Our strategy is laser-focused on expanding our footprint in the affluent, small and medium enterprises and wealth space,” said Nitin Chengappa, managing director and head of distribution and affluent banking.

Standard Chartered’s plans mirror those of several global peers and large wealth managers, which are clamoring for a share of managing India’s massive wealth generation. The number of individuals with more than $30 million of investable assets is expected to grow by 50% between 2023 and 2028, according to Knight Frank’s wealth report. UBS Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG have also ramped up hiring to serve India’s rich in Singapore, Dubai and London.

London-based Standard Chartered plans to invest a large share of its resources in establishing a presence in 10 state capitals and cities where there is a spurt in wealth growth, Chengappa said.

The bank intends to expand its current team of 810 relationship managers, for wealth and small businesses, by about 30% in the next 18 to 24 months, according to Aditya Mandloi, head of wealth and retail banking, India and South Asia.

While nearly 60% of its relationship managers were in its top six markets, the bank’s plan “is to disproportionately” focus on the new growth frontiers, including towns like Chandigarh and Kochi among others, he added.

Customers with more than $2 million of investable wealth could be considered for private banking services, Chengappa said on the sidelines of a meeting with reporters to mark the opening of its first international banking center for global Indians in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The British bank defines global Indians as both resident and non-resident Indians and is targeting customers in Singapore, Dubai and India, according to Rajesh Kannan, head of global Indian and head of wealth and retail banking for the United Arab Emirates. Kannan estimates there are about 750,000 clients with a revenue pool of over $300 billion, and the bank hopes to capture a share of that pool.

The bank is also pursuing owners of small and medium enterprises, with about 10 billion rupees ($119 million) in revenue, both for their corporate and personal needs, Mangloi said on the sidelines of the media event.

The bank sold its 41 billion rupees personal loans portfolio to Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. last week, but that didn’t signify the bank is stepping back from retail banking or from offering unsecured loans other than credit cards to its customers, Mandloi said. The transaction is expected to be completed over the next three months.

The decision to sell its loan portfolio stemmed from a global strategic shift, Mandloi added. The personal loan book it sold to Kotak had average loans of between 250,000 rupees and 300,000 rupees, he said.

“Personal loans are relatively smaller ticket and shorter in duration, which is not really seen as a core requirement of the emerging affluent segments,” Mandloi said.