Can Maybank turn its ASEAN banking franchise into a wealth-management advantage?

For universal banks with large retail and corporate franchises, wealth management presents a different growth opportunity from that facing standalone private banks. Customers can potentially be identified before they reach private banking thresholds, served as their wealth and requirements become more complex, and connected with capabilities elsewhere in the bank as their businesses and families expand across markets.

Maybank is seeking to do this across its ASEAN franchise. Its wealth structure stretches from privilege banking for the emerging affluent and premier banking for affluent customers to private wealth for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. Private banking is concentrated in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, with Singapore serving as its regional centre of excellence. Alice Tan, Head of Group Wealth Management at Maybank, described the strategy as a continuum extending from wealth creation through preservation and ultimately intergenerational transfer.

Converting banking relationships into wealth relationships
Maybank is leveraging the breadth of customer relationships already within the group. Rather than beginning the wealth relationship only when customers qualify for private banking, Maybank is seeking to establish it earlier and serve clients through different stages as their assets and needs develop. Tan said Maybank wants to “build a relationship early in a client's wealth journey” and remain with customers as they progress through different stages of wealth. The model has particular relevance for entrepreneurs, whose corporate and personal financial requirements are closely connected. Maybank already serves businesses through other parts of the group, allowing its wealth business to draw on relationships established through commercial, corporate and investment banking.

Tan identified ASEAN connectivity as one of Maybank's key differentiators. She said the group has a footprint in 10 ASEAN countries, combining knowledge of individual markets with regional connectivity. For entrepreneurs operating across borders, the wider Maybank relationship can help provide access to corporate and investment-banking capabilities. The proposition is therefore to connect the corporate and personal sides of the relationship as the entrepreneur's business and wealth develop.

Tan also sees further growth potential within Maybank's existing customer franchise. She said increasing penetration of the bank's Malaysian customer base can generate significant additional wealth business. Over the next three to four years, she identified Malaysia, Indonesia and Greater China as important areas of focus. Maybank's immediate opportunity is therefore as much about deepening existing relationships as acquiring new ones.

Connecting wealth relationships across ASEAN
The value of a regional footprint depends on what it enables a bank to do for the same customer across markets. Tan illustrated this with Greater China entrepreneurs expanding into Malaysia. Maybank works with Malaysian agencies to help these clients understand sectors and investment opportunities, establish their businesses and corporate banking relationships, and subsequently develop their personal banking relationships.

A family's financial arrangements may follow a different geography from the business. Some clients investing in Malaysia may prefer Singapore as their financial or family base. Tan said Maybank can connect these customers with its Singapore operation and, where required, assist with practical relocation needs, including finding homes and schools. The example shows how Maybank intends its ASEAN connectivity proposition to operate in practice. A relationship originating in one market can generate corporate, personal and wealth management requirements in others.

Technology is also part of the effort to make that regional model more consistent. Tan said Maybank wants a single core wealth management system across the region, allowing customers to receive a more consistent experience, including in areas such as interfaces and statements, as they use the bank across markets. The objective is ultimately to make a regional network operate more like a connected wealth franchise from the customer's perspective.

Extending Islamic wealth beyond its traditional base
Islamic wealth management adds another dimension to Maybank's wealth strategy. Tan noted that Islamic wealth solutions are not limited to Muslim clients. She described them more broadly as value-based investments whose reach can extend beyond customers choosing them primarily for religious reasons, provided the underlying product and features are competitive. 

The bank is also placing emphasis on legacy, trust services and philanthropy to support estate planning and intergenerational wealth transfer within its wider wealth management proposition. Maybank's Islamic wealth finance ambitions extend beyond its existing ASEAN markets. Tan identified the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as another potential area for Islamic wealth and said that the current intention is for wealth relationships generated in the GCC to be booked in Singapore.

Using partnerships and technology to scale the model
Serving customers across different wealth tiers requires a broad range of investment, advisory and technology capabilities. Maybank is combining internal capabilities with external partnerships rather than building everything on its own. Tan cited a conventional Chief Investment Office (CIO) solution with Fidelity and a retirement proposition with Manulife alongside Maybank's Islamic CIO offering. These partnerships add specialist capabilities to a proposition intended to serve customers at different stages of their wealth journey.

Maybank has partnered with wealth technology provider Evooq on portfolio construction and stress testing, while Tan described artificial intelligence (AI) as another way to improve how the bank identifies opportunities and supports its relationship managers. She discussed potential AI applications in areas including know-your-customer (KYC) processes, transaction monitoring and identifying significant movements in portfolios so that relationship managers can respond more quickly. She highlighted that while technology can help advisers process information, monitor portfolios and identify opportunities, the relationship manager remains the connection between those capabilities and the client.

Preparing digital capabilities for the next generation
Tokenisation represents another capability Maybank is developing as customer behaviour changes. Maybank Singapore provides private banking customers with access to tokenised products through ADDX. Although Tan said volumes were 'not significant' yet, the reason for developing the capability is forward-looking. Tan expects younger customers to be more receptive to tokenised investments as these customers become a larger part of the wealth client base. This connects the digital assets strategy with the wider question of intergenerational wealth. Tan said the investment behaviour of the next generation differs from that of their parents. Younger customers tend to start investing in equities earlier, are more digitally oriented and show greater interest in areas such as tokens.

Maybank has consequently begun engaging second generation family members directly rather than waiting for assets to transfer to them. Tan described a regional programme in Singapore in which next- generation clients spent three days in classroom sessions and gained exposure to different Maybank functions. The initiative reflects a broader change in how Maybank is approaching intergenerational wealth: tailoring solutions for the next generation and building the next generation relationship in its own right.

Maintaining relationships as wealth changes hands
Another important element of Maybank’s wealth model is its relationship-led approach to financial services, which it calls, ‘humanising financial services'. Tan said some relationship managers progress through the wealth organisation alongside their customers, beginning with emerging affluent clients, moving into affluent banking and eventually serving them in private banking. “The customers feel very comforted that there's a familiar face that knows them from their 30s all the way to when they have their next generation,” she said. “That trust is being built over the years.”

Continuity can help preserve the relationship as clients move between wealth segments because the banker already understands the individual, family and business. It also helps explain why Maybank's investments in technology and AI are being positioned around relationship managers. While the technology provides tools for portfolio analysis, monitoring and identifying opportunities, the adviser remains the connection between those capabilities and the client.

Turning regional reach into deeper wealth relationships
Maybank’s strategy leverages group-wide relationships to serve more of each customer’s financial needs. Its wealth continuum, universal banking model and ASEAN footprint support cross-market relationships. Islamic wealth adds another dimension to the proposition, while partnerships and technology broaden the capabilities available to clients and relationship managers. Developments in AI, tokenisation and next-generation programmes reflect an effort to adapt as customer expectations change. 

Maybank’s strategic question is how deeply it can connect wealth relationships across its ASEAN footprint. Its universal banking model offers multiple entry points, but the challenge is to link business banking with personal wealth, extend relationships across markets and sustain them across generations.