According to the publication, Edelweiss expects wealth management and retail broking to contribute to 30 to 40 per cent of the group's overall business in four to five years, from 18 to 20 per cent after the completion of its purchase of Anagram, a retail broker.

"It's still an emerging opportunity, but a large part of the high net worth market is shifting from brokerage to integrated private banking and wealth management services," Rashesh Shah, the firm’s chairman, is reported to have said.

He also said that the industry may need 30,000 to 40,000 relationship managers over the next four to five years in India, when currently the industry has only 500 to 600 good quality managers against current demand for 3,000 to 4,000 managers.

"Eight to 10 years ago, a high net worth individual, all he or she wanted to do was to invest in the markets. Now they want allocations across mutual funds, real estate and alternative assets."

"The challenge in the entire private banking and wealth management space is not the opportunity, it is the supply. There are not many quality relationship managers and product managers who can cater to this demand," Shah is quoted as having said.

Edelweiss, which currently has 65 relationship managers on its roster, estimates that 500,000 people in India have at least $500,000 assets each to invest.

In other recent developments, earlier this year Edelweiss recruited Anshu Kapoor from HSBC to head up  its wealth unit.