The firms are part of a trend of European private banks hooking up with Asian counterparts to penetrate the market.

Liechtenstein’s VP Bank continued a busy week by announcing that it plans to build a joint wealth management platform in Hong Kong with Hywin Wealth Management (China), pitched at onshore and offshore service offerings. The move continues a pattern of Asian partnerships with European banks, particularly banks in Switzerland.

Hywin Wealth Management and VP Bank signed a memorandum of understanding this week stating that they intend to “enter into strategic collaboration”. 

The combination marries a bank founded in 1956 – and now with a presence in several regions – with a firm founded in Shanghai in 2006. Hywin has 148 subsidiaries in 72 cities,  employs more than 2,000 staff and serves more than 50,000 clients, the organisations said. Hywin is also present in the UK and Hong Kong. That footprint compares with Zurich-listed VP Bank’s presence in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands. 

“The planned cooperation represents an excellent opportunity to expand our business activities in the Chinese market and to successfully continue VP Bank Group's Asia strategy with a highly professional and in China widely recognised partner”, Christoph Mauchle, head of client business and member of VP Bank’s group executive management, said.

The announcement comes shortly after VP Bank appointed Paul Arni as the new chief executive, who will take up the role on 1 October. (Until then, Dr Urs Monstein, chief operating officer, continues to act as the interim CEO.) Most recently, he was head of wealth management for Switzerland and a member of the board of management of Deutsche Bank (Switzerland).

While obviously not exclusive to Asia, joint ventures and partnerships have been a trend in the region, as banks from Western countries have sought to tap into HNW wealth growth without having to spend money on building big teams on the ground, a process that can take years to pull off. Examples in Asia include a Julius Baer joint venture in Thailand, and the UBS partnership in Japan with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings. Swiss private bank Bordier & Cie joined forces in 2018 with a Vietnamese lender to develop services in the Southeast Asian country. Last year the Swiss Bankers Association called for medium-sized Swiss banks, which lacked some of the footprint of the top-tier players, to forge local partnerships as a way of tapping into the region’s fast-growing wealth.

To see another story about Hywin, click here.