Following the easing of offshore banking unit regulations in 2013, Citi Taiwan is poised to grow its wealth and asset management businesses through new partnerships, product launches.

Citibank Taiwan has announced plans to expand in the offshore banking unit business by partnering with some of the largest asset management firms in Hong Kong.

The deals forged with Allianz Global Investors Hong Kong, Value Partners and China Asset Management (Hong Kong) follows the deregulation of the OBU businesses by the Financial Supervisory Commission in late 2013. With this move, banks are now allowed to provide all foreign-currency based products and services to clients regardless of their asset levels, the bank said.

For this latest effort, Citi Taiwan launched a poll among OBU customers to generate feedback. The results show that 69 per cent of clients will consider wiring their overseas funds back to their accounts in Taiwan. Of this number, 45 per cent said they will do so for convenience, while 28 per cent said they are doing it so they can invest their money in the latest financial products. 

Around 20 per cent of the respondents are attracted to Renminbi-denominated products, 13 per cent said they will dabble in offshore funds that have not yet been introduced into Taiwan, 13 per cent will go for high yield bonds, 13 per cent for hedge funds, 9 per cent for offshore structured products and 9 per cent for private equity funds. 

Given these findings, Citi Taiwan said it will be providing its OBU customers with three categories of investment products and services: RMB-denominated products, premier funds and high-yield bonds and structured products. The partnership with Allianz and Value Partners has so far resulted in the launch of 26 new funds, which include multi-asset funds, high-dividend equity funds, high-yield bond funds, Greater China equity funds and European equity funds. According to Citi, most of these products are popular in Hong Kong and Singapore. New structured products will be introduced every month.

Citi has been operating its wealth management business through the Citigold Wealth Management brand in Taiwan since 2001.