Australia's Macquarie Group said its recently created Asian private banking unit will focus only on the very rich and will hire another 30-35 client advisors in the next three to five years, according to Reuters.

The unit, which now has five client or investment advisers in

Singapore, plans to hire three more adviseors by next March and another eight people the following year, the head of Macquarie Private Wealth Asia Joseph Poon, was quoted as saying at the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

"We would want 35-40 client advisors to cover
Asia," Mr Poon said.

His comments echo remarks he made to WealthBriefing earlier this year about
Macquarie’s Asian ambitions.

Each advisor will deal with 20-25 clients and help manage about $1 billion to $1.5 billion in clients' money, Mr Poon said.

"We intend to bring our back office (and) mid-office operation from
Australia business into

Singapore because it makes sense from a cost-scale perspective," he added, without elaborating.

Macquarie,
Australia's largest investment bank, set up a Singapore-based Asian wealth management unit in March this year to complement its existing private banking operations in

Australia.

The
Singapore unit will focus only on ultra high net worth individuals in
Asia with assets of more than $30 million, unlike the Australian operations which sets a minimum assets size of A$5 million, said Mr Poon.

Wealth management had been one of the most profitable bank segments prior to the current financial crisis, prompting non-traditional players to expand into this sector over the past few years