Private banking in region shifting to fee-based model: BOS

Singapore

BANK of Singapore Ltd (BOS), which recently bought the wealth-management units of Barclays plc in Asia, sees the region's private-banking industry shifting towards a fee-based model at the expense of the traditional practice of charging rich clients commissions on their transactions.

"The whole industry is moving into advisory," said BOS chief executive officer Bahren Shaari, speaking about private banking in Asia. At a time of volatility in global financial markets, rich clients are more cautious about trading and increasingly prefer the relative consistency of returns from fee-based managed portfolios, Mr Shaari said in an interview on Friday at the bank's headquarters.