Merrill Lynch Plans to Double Private Banking

With an eye on the burgeoning
affluent Indian segment, Merrill Lynch is planning to double its
private banking business in the country by doubling the number
of its financial advisers this year.

Rahul Malhotra, Merrill Lynch’s
head of India Global Private Client, said his bank, which has
already doubled from last year, is building private client business
in India and will invest in technology, infrastructure and in
human resource to support its expansion plans.

Malhotra also added that
his bank also plans to grow the client assets under management
for both onshore and offshore India by eight to ten times in the
coming years.

As of now, the bank is building
up operations in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore
and has expressed the desire to increase the number of cities
from where they could operate.

Merril Lynch bank wants to
double the strength of financial advisors this year, who are serving
the Indian clients residing in the country and abroad.Over all,
Merrill Lynch has 16,000 financial advisers and its global private
client team at DSPML is amongst the largest team of private bankers
in the country.

As part of private banking
services, the company besides providing wealth management advisory
service, has also launched the global non resident Indians (NRIs)
business targeting NRIs living across the world.

Merrill Lynch as the bank,
that also assists High Networth Individuals (HNI) in wealth management
advisory service, is also planning to spread its wings into tier-II
cities. According to recent Forbes list, India, with world’s 36
richest people, has emerged as Asia’s biggest home to billionaires.

A report by the bank in 2005
had identified South Korea and India as the two fastest growing
markets in the High Net Worth wealthy segment globally.

Photo: A-Indian bank- manikoondu building by Parvathisri, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.