Further signs emerge of how India's wealth management industry is developing.

India-based Equirus Capital, the investment bank, has made a “foray” into wealth management, appointing former Citibank senior executive Ankur Maheshwari as  CEO for this business segment. More hires in this space are planned.

The organisation is making the move as part of its goal to be a “full-service financial services company”. 

The new venture will offer innovative investment solutions to high net worth individuals and mass-affluent persons, it said in a statement.

Maheshwari is responsible for setting up the business and expanding it. New recruits will report to the new CEO.

He has 15 years’ of financial industry experience, having previously worked at Citibank where he headed investment sales for the global consumer bank. He has also worked at J P Morgan, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints.

The development is another sign of rising wealth in India. As noted in a report last year about a Knight Frank Wealth Report, India had at the time of publication around 2 per cent of the world’s millionaires (13.6 million) and 5 per cent of world’s billionaires (2,024). Between 2015 and 2016, the country has witnessed a 12 per cent increase in ultra-high net worth individuals, seen rising by 150 per cent over the next decade. The Capgemini World Wealth Report for 2017 noted that in 2016, India had 219 HNW individuals, up from 200 in the previous year.

Among recent developments in the country, India-based Waterfield Advisors in January explained it took on a raft of senior figures over the past three months as it builds out its family office business. Separately, a new family office is being created by the family of Uday Kotak, the managing director of India's Kotak Mahindra Bank.