Private wealth grows faster than the frameworks built to manage it

Global financial wealth reached $333 trillion, the fastest growth since 2021, and 60% of family offices plan portfolio shifts within 12 months. In Europe, EFG International posted record profitability and Standard Chartered brought forward its $200 billion net new money target by a year. In Asia, Hong Kong displaced Switzerland as the world’s largest cross-border booking centre for the first time, DBS announced its largest-ever physical wealth expansion, and Maybank opened institutional private credit to Malaysian high-net-worth (HNW) investors. In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued new guidance to cut private banking account opening to within a month. Yet Lombard Odier’s Asia Pacific (APAC) study finds that priorities are clear but frameworks are not.

Read more on the week’s key developments:

UBS reports 60% of family offices plan portfolio shifts within 12 months

UBS found that six in ten family offices plan to reallocate assets within the next 12 months, the highest rate it has recorded, with geopolitical risk the primary driver. The finding comes from the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, published on 28 May 2026, drawing on a survey of 317 single-family offices across 30 markets with an average of $2.7 billion in investable assets. Planned shifts include reductions in US equity concentration and increased exposure to alternatives, private credit and non-US markets. For wealth managers advising family offices, the implications are operational as well as strategic: shifts of this scale require updated investment policy statements, governance frameworks and deeper manager due diligence than most offices currently maintain.

Hong Kong overtakes Switzerland as the world's largest cross-border booking centre

Hong Kong has displaced Switzerland as the world's largest cross-border booking centre for the first time, with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) projecting both will continue growing as global mobile capital concentrates into a smaller number of hubs. BCG's 2026 Global Wealth Report, published on 27 May 2026, confirmed that cross-border wealth booked in Hong Kong rose 10.7% in 2025 to $2.95 trillion, narrowly surpassing Switzerland's $2.94 trillion. Global financial wealth reached $333 trillion, a 10.7% increase and the fastest growth since 2021. Both Hong Kong and Singapore are forecast to grow cross-border booked assets at around 9% annually through 2030, against an expected 6% for Switzerland. BCG attributed Hong Kong's rise to mainland China inflows, a resurgent initial public offering (IPO) market and the Wealth Connect scheme. Institutions without a strong Hong Kong or Singapore booking capability face structural pressure as mobile capital gravitates toward fewer, more globally connected centres.

Lombard Odier warns APAC wealth priorities are outpacing governance frameworks

Lombard Odier’s 2026 APAC high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) study, published on 28 May 2026, finds that APAC HNW families are increasingly focused on building resilience through diversification, liquidity and long-term planning, but continue to face significant gaps in translating those intentions into structured action. Now in its fifth edition, the study draws on insights from more than 390 HNWIs across eight markets in the region and examines investment decisions, wealth planning and succession against a backdrop of geopolitical fragmentation, market volatility, regulatory complexity and rapid technological change. The study’s central finding is that long-term confidence is driven by preparation, structure and alignment rather than short-term market views, but that governance, succession and intergenerational alignment remain areas where intention outpaces execution.

Standard Chartered brings forward $200B wealth target as bank accelerates growth plan

Standard Chartered announced on 19 May 2026 a new sustainable growth plan targeting approximately 18% return on tangible equity by 2030, having achieved its previous 2026 medium-term financial targets a year early. The bank brought forward its wealth and retail banking net new money target of $200 billion from 2029 to 2028 and set a goal of growing affluent income to 75% of total wealth unit revenue by the same date. Standard Chartered is the third largest and fastest growing wealth manager in Asia, with plans to invest disproportionately in wealth and retail banking while reducing corporate function headcount by more than 15% by 2030.

EFG International posts record four-month net profit with $243B in AUM

EFG International's results for the first four months of 2026, published on 20 May 2026, make the case that specialist private banks can sustain strong momentum even as the largest global franchises intensify competition. EFG reported record net profit in excess of CHF 130 million ($166 million) for the first four months of 2026, alongside assets under management (AUM) reaching a record CHF 190.2 billion ($243 billion) at end-April 2026, up 19% year-on-year. Net new assets of CHF 3.7 billion ($4.7 billion) represented an annualised growth rate of 6%, at the upper end of EFG's target range.

DBS to open 18 new wealth centres across six Asian markets by end-2027

DBS Group announced on 1 June 2026 that it will open 18 new wealth centres across Asia by the end of 2027 and upgrade 36 existing centres over the next 18 months, the largest physical expansion of its wealth franchise to date. The expansion spans Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, India, Indonesia and Taiwan. In Singapore, DBS said its Treasures wealth centre footprint will increase by 50% with the new openings. DBS reported wealth AUM of SGD 492 billion ($384 billion) in the first quarter of 2026, approaching the SGD 500 billion ($391 billion) target set in 2024 ahead of schedule. Asia's affluent wealth pool, households with $100,000 to $1 million in investible assets, is projected to reach $4.7 trillion in 2026. The bank said clients continue to value personal and familiar relationships with advisers, with the new centres designed to deepen those relationships rather than handle routine transactions. The first wave of new centre openings is expected from the third quarter of 2026.

WRISE and Puyi Standard map China's family office frontier

China's family office market is professionalising rapidly, with onshore frameworks increasingly shaped by offshore structuring disciplines. WRISE Group and Puyi Standard released the 2026 China Family Office Development White Paper on 27 May 2026, described by the publishers as the first systematic review and forward-looking analysis of China's family office industry produced by the two firms in collaboration. The launch coincided with the opening of WRISE Group's new Chengdu office, the firm's third mainland China location following Shenzhen and Changsha. The white paper addresses governance frameworks, investment mandates and cross-border structuring as China's onshore family office market develops. For wealth advisers serving Chinese clients, the publication signals that structured solutions across investment, legal and succession disciplines are in accelerating demand. As China's first-generation entrepreneurs approach the largest intergenerational wealth transfer window in history, with over RMB 20 trillion ($2.9 trillion) expected to be transferred in the next decade, family offices have transformed from a "nice-to-have" option to a strategic necessity for systematic family governance.

MAS cuts private banking account opening to within a month with new Source of Wealth guidance

MAS issued a circular on 25 May 2026 guiding financial institutions to establish a client’s Source of Wealth in a risk-proportionate way, targeting a reduction in the time needed to open a private banking account to within one month, down from a median of approximately six weeks or longer for complex cases. MAS managing director Chia Der Jiun announced the circular at the UBS Asian Investment Conference Singapore Wealth Edition on 25 May 2026. It supplements earlier MAS guidance from 2024 on anti-money laundering controls and builds on the work of the Private Banking Industry Group (PBIG) Account Opening Workgroup, co-led by MAS and the industry, which identified practices that went beyond what MAS and international standards required. Alongside the circular, PBIG issued a set of Process Enhancement Tips offering practical guidance for relationship managers and compliance professionals on common account opening challenges. Case studies and training are to follow in the months ahead. The reforms directly affect every private bank operating in Singapore and are particularly significant for institutions managing cross-border Chinese and other HNW client flows into the city-state.

Maybank opens private credit to Malaysian HNW investors

Maybank Asset Management launched the MAMG Global Private Credit Fund on 19 May 2026. The fund gives Malaysian HNW investors first-time access to a private credit strategy managed by LGT Capital Partners, the Switzerland-based alternatives specialist with more than $110 billion in AUM. Distributed exclusively through Maybank Private Banking and Maybank Wealth Management, the fund invests into the LGT Global Private Credit S.A., SICAV-RAIF. The LGT Endowment serves as a significant anchor commitment, reflecting the endowment-style long-term orientation that defines the strategy. Minimum investment is MYR 50,000 ($11,100), with share classes also available in USD, AUD (hedged) and SGD (hedged). The fund is intended for sophisticated investors prepared for illiquidity and credit risk. Maybank Asset Management had MYR 38.5 billion ($9.7 billion) in AUM as of 30 April 2026.

HSBC Life Singapore targets HNW clients beyond investment returns

HSBC Life Singapore launched HSBC Life Prestige Circle on 21 May 2026, a proposition for HNW and ultra-high-net-worth clients that brings together health and longevity privileges, premium lifestyle concierge services and holistic advisory expertise to support complex, cross-border and multi-generational needs. The proposition covers three areas. The first is advisory access: specialist firms across wealth planning, estate structuring, tax, trusts, global mobility, education and philanthropy. The second is lifestyle concierge: travel design through Blue Sky Escapes and wellness experiences at selected Banyan Tree Flagship Resorts. The third is preventive health and longevity, delivered through Chi Longevity and Raffles Medical Group, with clients accessing the HSBC Life Longevity Suite at Chi Longevity clinics at Camden and the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore. HSBC Life’s own HNW Legacy Research found that 50% of HNW clients in Singapore consider value-added health or lifestyle benefits key to making their insurance policies tangible and valuable, with healthcare the top feature in demand at 43%.

What to watch next

DBS begins its first wave of new wealth centre openings in the third quarter of 2026. Maybank's private credit fund is an early indicator of whether institutional private markets access will extend across Southeast Asia.