Exclusive | DBS Hong Kong hiring wealth managers as investors’ risk appetite grows

DBS Hong Kong, a unit of Southeast Asia’s biggest lender, plans to hire 100 bankers in the next three years and open a new wealth centre next year to capture the growing wealth-management business in the city, according to a senior executive.

The subsidiary of the Singapore bank was pressing ahead with its expansion plan as its wealthy customers were not worried about market volatility triggered by the US-China trade war, according to Ajay Mathur, head of DBS Hong Kong’s consumer banking group and wealth management.

“The trade war and geopolitical tensions [may] have created volatility, [but] when there is volatility, it is a great time to trade currencies, bonds and equities,” Mathur said in an interview with the Post. “Our affluent clients have made the most of it.”

The benchmark Hang Seng Index plunged 13.2 per cent on April 7 after the US imposed hefty tariffs on Chinese imports, marking its largest one-day decline since October 1997. But the market recovered after both sides agreed to a 90-day truce last month.

The index has gained 24 per cent this year, after rising 18 per cent last year. Meanwhile, the average daily stock turnover in the first five months this year has jumped 120 per cent year on year to HK$242 billion (US$30.8 billion).