HSBC, Europe's biggest bank by total assets, is launching a dedicated wealth centre for affluent clients in Dubai, in an effort to grab a larger share of the rapidly growing wealth and asset management business in the UAE amid a record influx of millionaires from around the world.
The move comes weeks after the Asia and Middle East-focused bank was reportedly forced to let go of 1,000 clients in the broader Middle East region amid a regulatory investigation. However, Dinesh Sharma, HSBC's head of international wealth and premier banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, said the bank was fully committed to the region, especially the UAE, which ranks among the top five markets for the bank globally.
“We recognise the value of the UAE as part of our Middle East wealth strategy,” Mr Sharma told The National. “We are making our largest investment in the last two decades, over the next three to four years, across four key pillars of infrastructure, people, capabilities and marketing.”
Core of the strategy
International wealth management and premier banking services remain at the heart of HSBC’s strategy in the UAE, the Arab world’s second-largest economy.
“We see the UAE developing itself as a global wealth centre and our investments are tailored in that direction, to make sure it can develop into a global wealth hub … like Singapore had in the past,” he said, declining to give the amount HSBC plans to invest to expand its wealth business in the region.
HSBC is the latest among a host of global lenders, as well as asset and wealth managers, that have either set up a base in the UAE or have invested in solidifying their presence in the country, which has become a hotspot of global wealth migration in the past few years.
Measures introduced by the UAE to attract foreign investment, combined with its position as a gateway to the broader Middle East, Africa and South Asia, has helped it to attract large family offices, as well as institutional wealth, global financial institutions, private banks and asset managers.
Last year, JP Morgan Chase, the biggest US bank, said it was building a team of private bankers in the UAE. This month, Rothschild & Co, one of the world's biggest financial advisory groups, said its wealth management business, which manages €38 billion ($44.3 billion) in client assets, will take over the UAE operations of Liechtensteinische Landesbank.
Trillion-dollar asset managers including New York-based BlackRock, PGIM, the global asset management business of Prudential Financial and Chicago investment firm Nuveen have also established bases in Abu Dhabi.
The UAE is expected to attract a record 9,800 relocating millionaires this year, drawn by regulatory reforms and a tax-free lifestyle, the Wealth Migration Report 2025 by advisory Henley & Partners and wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth found. In 2024, Dubai had an estimated 81,200 millionaires and 20 billionaires.
Logical step forward
Mr Sharma said establishing a wealth centre in HSBC’s flagship Jumeirah branch is a logical step forward, considering the “historic influx of millionaires into the market”. It will provide the bank's premier and high-net-worth clients a dedicated space to meet and consult with their relationship managers.
The overall growth in wealth has pushed the number of millionaires in the UAE to more than 130,000. Personal financial assets in the market have grown by more than 20 per cent for the past three years to reach more than $700 billion, Mr Sharma added.
“For the past decade, we have seen mainly millionaires coming from India, 31 per cent, another 20 per cent are from other Middle Eastern markets, 14 per cent from Russia and CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries, and 12 per cent from the UK and Europe,” he added.
“But now we also seeing a lot of Chinese investors moving in. In fact, last year, China was the fourth-largest real estate investor in this market, accounting for 9 per cent of all real estate transaction.
"So right now, I think, the UAE is becoming an attractive magnet for everybody to move in, because it caters to everybody's needs.”
Driver of growth
HSBC has grabbed headlines in the past few weeks after media reports that it was forced to let go of more than 1,000 wealthy customers in the region amid regulatory scrutiny over high-risk clients.
The UK lender is ending its relationship with clients from markets including Lebanon, Egypt and Qatar – many with assets of more than $100 million, Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported last month.
However, Barry O’Byrne, chief executive of HSBC’s international wealth and premier banking, said the bank had an “absolute commitment to both our Middle East and Swiss wealth businesses” and was pursuing significant growth in the region.
Mr Sharma said the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region was vital for the bank’s overall growth, as it generated 37 per cent of total revenue of the HSBC Middle East business in 2024. The region also accounted for 13 per cent of the bank’s overall international wealth and premier banking revenue last year, he added.
At the core of the investment strategy for the next few years is an effort to establish more wealth centres, with Abu Dhabi a potential future location, Mr Sharma said.
