關注社會:私人銀行的亞洲機遇

After 18 years handling rich people's money in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Didier von Daeniken says he found that the concerns of the wealthy are similar no matter where they are in the world.

迪迪埃•馮•德尼肯(Didier von Daeniken)說，在爲歐洲、中東和亞洲地區的富人理財18年之後，他發現不管是哪個地方的富人，關心的事情都是差不多的。

'The economic cycle may be different in the regions, and there may be more first-generation wealthy in Asia, but an entrepreneur is still an entrepreneur,' said the 48-year-old Asia-Pacific head of Barclays Wealth, the private-banking arm of Barclays PLC, a role he's held since 2007.

馮•德尼肯現年48歲，2007年以來一直擔任巴克萊集團(Barclays PLC)旗下私人銀行巴克萊財富(Barclays Wealth)的亞太區負責人。他說，各地區經濟週期或許並不一樣，或許亞洲地區的富一代更多，但企業家畢竟是企業家。

Barclays is in the midst of a major expansion of its global private-banking business, spending GBP 350 million (US$549 million) the past two years on technology and new hires. The company expects the bulk of the growth to come from Asia, where booming economies have minted a new generation of millionaires.

巴克萊正在大力拓展其全球私人銀行業務，過去兩年它在技術和新招聘人員方面投入了3.5億英鎊（合5.49億美元）。該公司預計未來的業務增長主要來自亞洲，因爲該地區經濟的蓬勃發展已經造就了一代新富。

The regional private-banking business at Barclays has grown steadily, with assets under management in Asia increasing 25% last year, in line with the growth rate of the past five years, Mr. von Daeniken said. While Barclays doesn't separate out the assets by region, he said Asia accounts for approximately 10% of global assets under management, which totaled GBP 176 billion at the end of June.

巴克萊在亞洲地區的私人銀行業務一直在穩健增長。據馮•德尼肯說，去年公司在該地區管理的資產增加了25%，延續了過去五年的增勢。雖然巴克萊並不單獨列出各地區管理資產的數額，但據馮•德尼肯說，在截至6月底巴克萊管理的1,760億英鎊全球資產當中，亞洲地區約佔10%。

But the Asian market has hardly been a panacea for Western private banks. For one, costs are rising as competition for bankers sends salaries skyward. And secondly, Asia is calling for a new business model. In the West, most clients have traditionally paid their private bank a flat fee to manage their assets, providing the bank with steady and assured income. Asian clients prefer to pay by the transaction.

不過，亞洲並不是西方私人銀脫困的靈丹妙藥。首先，隨着人才爭奪導致薪資猛增，成本正在增加。其次，在亞洲地區做私人銀行需要一種新商業模式。在西方，多數客戶一直是爲其私人銀行支付一筆固定的管理費，這就給銀行帶來了穩定而有保障的收入，而亞洲客戶則更喜歡按交易付費。

Mr. von Daeniken, based in Singapore, recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal's Jason Chow about the challenges of the Asian market, why he's bullish on Japan, and why he's willing to shell out when hiring senior bankers.

常駐新加坡的馮•德尼肯前不久接受《華爾街日報》記者Jason Chow專訪，談亞洲市場的挑戰，談他爲什麼看好日本，爲什麼不惜重金聘請資深銀行家。

The following interview has been edited.

以下是經過編輯的訪談內容。

WSJ: Where is the opportunity for private banks in Asia?

《華爾街日報》：亞洲私人銀行的機會在哪裏？

Mr. von Daeniken: As long as you have huge creation of wealth in the major economies, markets will be growing. For us, that means targeting Greater China, Indonesia and India. No big surprise.

馮•德尼肯：只要幾個主要經濟體大量創造財富，市場就會不斷增長。對我們來說，這意味着要瞄準大中華區、印度尼西亞和印度。這沒有什麼好奇怪的。

Add to that: Japan. It sounds counterintuitive - as everyone will tell you about the lost decades in Japan. But it seems not to be true. Last year, for example, the market grew by some 4.2% - the number of high net-worth individuals in Japan. If you go to Japan and look around, we would all agree there are quite a lot of wealthy people in Japan. You look at their cars, the way they dress, you know there is a lot of money.

另外還要加上日本。這聽起來不合常理，因爲人人都會跟你講日本失去的幾十年。但實際情況好像不是這樣。比如在去年，日本市場（按高淨值個人數量計算）就擴大了4.2%左右。如果你到日本四處看看，就會發現日本富人相當之多。看他們開的車，穿的衣服，就知道他們相當有錢。

WSJ: Private banks traditionally have charged fees to manage people's portfolios, but wealthy Asians prefer to pay by the transaction. Does your business model have to change for Asia?

《華爾街日報》：過去，私人銀行一直是收取資產管理費，但亞洲富人更願意按交易付費。你們的商業模式是否需要爲亞洲而變？

Mr. von Daeniken: I think in Europe, it's changing. It's a reflection of [age], not necessarily geography. Even today, Europe is more transaction-oriented than you think.

馮•德尼肯：我認爲就是在歐洲，商業模式也在發生變化。這是對這個時代的一種反映，而不一定是對地理位置的反映。即便是在今天，歐洲也比人們所認爲的更加以交易爲導向。

Having said that, size matters. You need to have a business, in our opinion, of at least US$20 billion-US$25 billion of assets under management to be profitable in Asia.

另外，規模非常重要。我們認爲，要想在亞洲實現盈利，管理的資產至少得有200億美元到250億美元。

WSJ: With banks growing aggressively in Asia, how do you keep costs in line, especially when it comes to pay?

《華爾街日報》：隨着各個銀行在亞洲大力擴張，你們怎樣控制成本，特別是薪酬方面的成本？

Mr. von Daeniken: In 2008, we made one of the central tenets of our strategy the quality of the bankers we hire. We call it an inverted pyramid.

馮•德尼肯：2008年，我們把受聘銀行家的素質定爲我們戰略的核心原則之一。我們稱之爲倒金字塔結構。

We told [the head office in] London that by end of 2012, 60% of our bankers would be managing directors (15 years or more experience), 30% would be VPs and 10% assistant vice presidents. In 2008, only 17% were directors.

我們跟倫敦總部講，到2012年年底，董事總經理（15年或以上資歷）要佔60%，副總裁佔30%，助理副總裁佔10%。2008年董事總經理才佔17%。

This is invariably correlated with cost. But I have a different view: If you want to give clients good advice, experience counts.

這不可避免地要涉及到成本。不過從另一個角度來看，如果你想給予客戶優質建議，資歷是非常重要的。

It's a statement. We're saying that more than 50% of our bankers are senior bankers. Compare us to our competitors. A majority of them are organized in such a way that more than half of them are juniors who are supposed to support the seniors. We think that business is all wrong.

這是在宣告：我們超過半數的銀行家都是資深業者。把我們拿去跟競爭對手比一比吧。在大多數競爭對手的組織結構中，半數以上都是爲資深銀行家打下手的資歷較淺者。我們認爲這種模式是完全錯誤的。

WSJ: Everybody is trying to poach each other's bankers. How do you keep yours?

《華爾街日報》：在大家都相互挖角的環境下，你們用什麼辦法留住人才？

Mr. von Daeniken: There are bankers who are outpricing themselves. . because we are a small organization, we don't need to hire 120 bankers a year. If in a given year, we've hired 25 bankers, I'm very happy. There is no way you are going to find 150 good bankers in the whole of Asia.

馮•德尼肯：有些銀行家的確開價過高……但由於我們是一家小規模機構，我們不需要一年聘請120位銀行家。如果某一年我們聘用了25位銀行家，我就非常滿意了。要在整個亞洲找到150名優秀銀行家，那是不可能的。

WSJ: Many clients in Asia, burned by investments gone bad during the last downturn, are dissatisfied with private banks. What do you do to combat that perception?

《華爾街日報》：亞洲地區很多客戶在上次衰退期間因爲投資失利而受傷，他們對私人銀行並不滿意，你們用什麼辦法來應對他們的這種認知呢？

Mr. von Daeniken: Understanding the client is important. It sounds so basic.

馮•德尼肯：理解客戶是很重要的。這聽起來是非常基本的東西。

You don't have to have very sophisticated tools to have this discussion about risk. One of the primary responsibilities of the banker is to have again and again that conversation. 'Are you sure? You know where we are? Do you understand the risk on your portfolio?'

談論風險並不需要利用多麼複雜的工具。銀行家的首要職責之一，是一次又一次地問“你確定嗎”、“你知道我們說的是怎麼一回事嗎” 、“你是否瞭解自己投資組合的風險”。

WSJ: What is the biggest risk to growth?

《華爾街日報》：業務增長面臨的最大風險是什麼？

Mr. von Daeniken: Asian economies performing badly - that's the primary risk. That means our clients will make less money, and so they'll have less to invest. But that's the only one.

馮•德尼肯：亞洲經濟表現不佳──這是主要風險，這意味着我們客戶的收入將會減少，這樣一來他們用於投資的資金也會減少。但也就這樣一種風險。

WSJ: What about competitors' getting a larger share of the private-banking pie?

《華爾街日報》：你會擔心競爭對手在私人銀行這塊蛋糕中獲得了較大的份額嗎？

Mr. von Daeniken: I'm more concerned that the pie is shrinking.

馮•德尼肯：我更擔心的是這塊蛋糕變小。

We have grown by expanding our bankers population. Bankers brought with them clients. And that has been a significant contributor to growing our assets. In the next five to six years, it's very important for us to be more and more successful in satisfying our clients. The first phase was for bankers to bring the client network they have. The next phase is for clients to advocate what we have achieved.

通過擴充銀行家的人數，我們實現了擴張。銀行家會帶來客戶，這成了我們擴充資產規模的重要貢獻因素。在接下來五六年裏，越來越有效地滿足客戶需求將是非常重要的。第一階段是讓銀行家把他們的客戶人脈帶過來。下一階段是讓客戶來宣傳我們取得的成績。