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China's rich, silver lining on turbulent global wealth market

By Cheng Yunjie (Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-01 14:25

Porfile of China's rich

Different from those in the United States and Europe, the wealthy in China comprise of primarily entrepreneurs who have made their money from rapidly growing industries over the past two decades, said the BCG report.

These established entrepreneurs tend to hold significant levels of cash to provide security and at the same time are highly speculative and have a high tolerance for risk, potentially a characteristic inherited from their entrepreneurial backgrounds.

"In 2007 riskier instruments were very popular in China," said Tjun Tang. As the financial crisis intensifies however, he expected that in short term investors would be much more risk averse, with greater cash components to their portfolios, seek simpler and less complex products and look for more transparent investments where they could understand how money was made.

On regular outlook, he said, the regulators would continue to move in the direction of opening and developing the nascent financial market and try to draw insights on how to better manage and regulate it.

Currently, many international banks have used traditional offshore private banking centers, where regulatory constraints are significantly easier, to serve Chinese wealth held outside of China.

As the Chinese government allowed foreign banks to be locally incorporated and to provide local currency retail business and wealth management services to local Chinese individual, the game has recently changed.

As the world economy and markets are waiting for recession, Tjun Tang identified that globally, the private banking industry was facing reduced transaction volume and revenues among another challenges, "Many client have stopped investing and moved into cash," he said.

"China's wealth management is immature but offers very substantial potential, from both the underlying growth in the financial assets of Chinese households and the rapidly increasing penetration of private banking services into this market," said the report.

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