A boom in mainland Chinese family offices setting up in Singapore is drawing in thousands of financial professionals, including from global investment banks, creating what some finance heads are calling a new “hedge fund” industry in the city state.
Wealthy mainland Chinese moving assets out of President Xi Jinping’s China account for up to half of a rise in Singapore-based single family offices — the private wealth management firms set up for rich individuals and their relatives. Numbers have jumped nearly threefold since the coronavirus pandemic began and, according to some estimates, now total as many as 1,500.
“The large family offices are trying to offer the kind of salary senior wealth professionals at private banks are paid,” said Caroline Lee, a former private banker who manages a Singapore-based single family office for a group of Chinese clients. “A lot [depends] on the individual bankers, but it might appeal to people who feel there is too much politics at a big bank.”