Todd Thomson, Citigroup’s chief executive of its global wealth management group, believes growth in wealth management will help to underpin ...

Todd Thomson, Citigroup’s chief executive of its global wealth management group, believes growth in wealth management will help to underpin the banking industry in the coming years, with Asia offering the greatest global potential.

Mr Thomson told Dow Jones NewsWires: “Wealth management is a very fragmented market. The largest players in the world only have around 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent share of this market. You can imagine the kind of opportunity that exists out there for a major player to take a larger share.”

Mr Thomson believes wealth management will grow faster than the rest of the financial-services industry in the coming years. He said individuals are becoming more sophisticated in terms of their savings, borrowing and investment needs and are increasingly turning to financial advisers for help in managing their money.

He expects wealth-management revenue to grow by around 8 per cent to 10 per cent annually in the next five years, stronger than projections of a 5 per cent to 6 per cent annual growth for the overall financial services industry in the same period.

Mr Thomson, who was promoted to the new position as global head of wealth management at Citigroup after the bank’s private banking division in Japan was forced to close, believes consolidation with gather pace in wealth management and the bigger banks will win out.

At present, the top 10 global wealth-management firms account for less than 15 per cent of their industry's market, Mr Thomson said. “We will see further consolidation as clients will want to go to financial advisers that can provide them with total solutions,” he told Dow Jones.

The New York-based banker said Asia would be at the forefront of growth in wealth management in the coming years. And Citigroup believes India, South Korea and China offer the greatest potential for wealth management growth.