BPI Wealth opens Singapore branch at Marina Bay
The wealth management unit of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has expanded to Singapore. This is to gain access to more regional clients through one of Asia’s major financial centers.
BPI Wealth opened its doors within the Marina Bay Financial Centre on Oct. 1. It now shares the same building with Standard Chartered Bank, Raffles Quay Asset Management and Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, among others.
This means BPI will be able to offer fund management, product financing, capital markets products and other related services to clients based in Singapore.
“This new office is a bridge—connecting the Philippines and Singapore, our clients to global markets and our heritage to the future,” BPI president and CEO TG Limcaoco said in a statement on Friday.
BPI Wealth Singapore is the second international office of the bank after BPI Wealth Hong Kong. The Ayala-led bank also has BPI Europe Plc, its branch in London, United Kingdom.
BPI chair Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said that Singapore was the destination for “next-generation wealth conversations.”
“To serve our clients well and to serve them for generations, we must be present in this ecosystem,” Zobel said. “By being here, we reinforce our ability to connect the Philippines to the region, and to the world.”
BPI Wealth currently has 1.3 million customers out of the entire BPI Group’s 18 million. As of end-June, the asset and wealth management segment of BPI had P1.9 trillion in assets under management.
BPI Wealth president Maria Theresa Marcial earlier said they were aiming to manage P3 trillion for their wealthy clients by 2026. However, she said they were reviewing their strategy and targets for 2030. BPI is currently approaching the tail-end of its five-year plan ending in 2026, its 175th year in business.
Meanwhile, its private wealth unit, whose clients include those with a net worth of at least $1 million, wants to grow its client base to potentially more than 8,000 people by next year.
In aiming for this target, BPI Private Wealth said they were seeing growth in the country’s affluent sector.
