GFIA Pte, a Singapore-based hedge-fund consultant, started a wealth management business as it aims to tap mainly affluent individuals in Asia.

As part of the plan, GFIA will service one “substantial family” based in Singapore, which will take an equity stake in GFIA’s holding company, said Peter Douglas, the principal of the GFIA. He declined to elaborate on the size of the transaction or identify the family.

Millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region had total wealth of US$7.4 trillion ($10.4 trillion) in 2008 and growth in the region’s wealth will outstrip the global average as economies outperform, according to a report published in October by Cap Gemini SA and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

“There is significant wealth creation in Asia, and through 2008 what we saw and what we heard was that they were very disillusioned by how the financial industry instructed them,” said Douglas in a telephone interview today. “There is really an opportunity, specifically for non-bank organisations, to administer wealthy people’s assets.”

The entry into the private banking business will provide financial stability for GFIA’s consulting and discretionary businesses, allowing them to be profitable again, Douglas said. GFIA doesn’t disclose financial terms.

Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch forecast the combined wealth of Asia-Pacific millionaires will increase 8.8% annually until 2018, compared with a global average of 7.1%. The riches of millionaires in China and India may grow by more than US$4 trillion over the next decade, they said.