Poor performers do little or nothing to support intermediaries. Operating on the sensible premise that competitive intelligence is vital in the private wealth industry, London-based Datamonitor, a business information provider, has published a report that rates Asian-Pacific wealth managers.

Benchmarking Wealth Managers in Asia Pacific 2004, analyzes global, regional and single-country competitors, rates nine business areas within wealth management from the viewpoint of general strategy, products and services, distribution and customer acquisition and management, and provides “detailed strategic and tactical analysis enabling design of effective strategies and operations.”

Citigroup, Coutts and the Maquarie Group topped competitor league tables last year in the Asian Pacific region by virtue of “exceptional performance in business expansion, customer segmentation and specialist capabilities,” says Research and Markets, a Dublin-based clearinghouse for third-party industry reports. Among the clunkers were Commonwealth Bank, Dah Sing, Pictet and Commerzbank, which exhibited “significant gaps right across the business model range against their respective peer groups.”

“Significantly,” adds Research and Markets, “all poor performers lacked specialist capabilities and any services to intermediaries, increasingly important areas in the Asia-Pacific wealth management market as customers demand an increased product range, but lack the expertise to apply them without advice.”

Click here to learn more about the report. –FWR