FirstRand Sets Sights On Stepping Up Indian Wealth Business

Tom Burroughes

7 November 2008

FirstRand, the South African financial services business which has launched a new private wealth management arm targeting groups such as non-resident Indians, intends to deepen its involvement in the fast-growing Indian market, a senior executive told WealthBriefing.

This week, FirstRand set up the new operation, to be called FirstRand Private Wealth Management. It will be headquartered in Jersey with offices in South Africa and Dubai. The latter office will have a primary focus on NRIs.

“The clear intention is to move into the Indian market more next year. We already have a representative presence there,” Trevor Falle, chief executive of FirstRand International Wealth Management, said.

Beyond that, Mr Falle declined to comment on further moves by FirstRand: “We want to get these new projects launched and making money.”

The decision represents a move by the bank to spread its brand name. The bank’s subsidiaries include the Jersey-based asset manager Ashburton.

“We’re a market leader in South Africa and we want to exploit that,” Mr Falle said.

The Dubai operation will be run by Vijey Kapoor, chief executive of DIFC-based FirstRand PWM (Middle East), who will also head the new India operation when it is launched.

Firms such as SG Private Banking, ING and UBS have been stepping up their private banking operations in India, attracted by the rapid growth in the affluent Indian middle class. According the Merrill Lynch/Capgemini report on wealth trends earlier this year, India’s population of high net worth individuals skyrocketed by 22.7 per cent in 2007.