The private banking arm of Singapore’s DBS (DBSM.SI) said on Monday it expects 20 to 30% annual growth in net new assets from China, Indonesia and India, as it gears up for expansion in Asia’s fastest-growing

“The high delta or the high growth markets right now are clearly  China, Indonesia for Southeast Asia, and India,” Su Shan Tan, DBS’s group head of wealth management, said at the Reuters Global Private Banking Summit. “So those are our key focus areas right now.”

 

Asia has become the battleground for private banks as global and Asian players expand to gain bigger market share in a region that is outpacing growth in the United States and Europe.

 

Tan, a former Morgan Stanley banker who joined DBS in July, said the bank has set up two teams in Singapore to target rich Indian clients and hopes to have five to six bankers by the end of the year for that segment.

 

DBS is also looking at the possibility of starting onshore private banking in India after it expanded onshore in China, while Indonesian clients will be targeted from Singapore.

 

Tan said the private bank, which holds close to $35 billion in client assets including debt, could see double-digit annual growth in assets overall over the next few years.