Standard Chartered expects its business in the Middle East, which accounts for about 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the money it makes globally, to continue expanding at a brisk pace, driven by the lender’s rapidly increasing private banking offerings to affluent clientele, its group chief executive has said.
The Middle East wealth management business is one of the fastest growing in the world for the UK-based lender as it continues to channel more resources to the region, Bill Winters told The National on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference on Wednesday.
Standard Chartered Group CEO
Private banking assets under management (AUM) have already doubled in the Middle East and could easily grow manifold amid rapid creation as well as migration of wealth to the region, he said.
“We have a full private banking and wealth management operation in Dubai to serve the broad region and it's 5 per cent of our assets under management today, which has, by the way, doubled, and that 5 per cent could become 15 per cent or 20 per cent,” Mr Winters said.
“If we can double it every two years”, by the turn of the decade, the bank can get to that target.
Standard Chartered's wealth business in the broader Asia, Middle East and Africa region has historically grown at 9.5 per cent compound annual rate, and while the Middle East is now leading the charge, markets in Singapore and Hong Kong have also expanded rapidly.
Strategic priority
The push to increase the wealth management services to the uber rich in the region is part of Standard Chartered's broader growth strategy. The lender plans to invest $1.5 billion into its wealth and private banking operations globally.
The bank's wealth franchise had assets under management of $420 billion at the end of the first half of 2025, marking an 11 per cent compound annual growth since 2016. It received $28 billion in new money during the first six months of this year, 62 per cent of which came from international clients, according to Standard Chartered’s first-half earnings presentation.
In May, the bank hired four senior executives to strengthen its private banking operations in the UAE, which followed a 20 per cent expansion in frontline private banking team in the Arab world’s second-largest economy.
Standard Chartered is among a host of international banks, money managers and investment houses flocking to the region or investing in consolidating their position to grab a larger share of the wealth business pie.
Arab world’s two largest economies, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as their peers in the six-member GCC economic bloc, have maintained a strong growth momentum since bouncing back from the Covid-driven slowdown, outpacing most European and emerging markets.
The robust growth momentum, coupled with millionaires flocking to the region and the migration of family and institutional wealth from Europe and Asia, is drawing global wealth managers to region.
Standard Chartered rival HSBC in September launched a dedicated wealth centre for the very rich in the UAE, while biggest US lender JP Morgan has also unveiled plans to build its team of private bankers in the region.
However, despite steep competition, Mr Winters said, the business is growing from a small base, so it has immense potential of growth.
Diverse base
Private banking is not the only driver of Standard Chartered’s growth in the Middle East. Corporate banking, which accounts for the bulk of the business, is also driving expansion in the region, Mr Winters said.
“It has been growing at 7 per cent compound [rate] and has been outperforming” the market, he said, adding that the banks has a diverse model both in terms of the geographies and the business focus that gives it an advantage.
“So, we make about a third of our money in Greater China, with Hong Kong being central to that, a bit less in Asean, with Singapore being a hub, but each country has got its own life,” Mr Winters said.
“And then, the Middle East [and] South Asia are each around 10 per cent to 15 per cent” with the Gulf, growing “very nicely”.
Africa, according to Mr Winters, has historically grown about 10 per cent or a little bit less but “thankfully, each of those regions is growing now”.
“We feel quite fortunate that where there's growth in the world, we've got sort of an overweight exposure,” he said. “I can't say that the Middle East or the Gulf is going to become a much bigger proportion of our business, because it's all growing.”
Still evolving
Standard Chartered might be smaller than other global lenders but its business conducted, including currencies and debt capital markets, is ranked high, “so we're fully scaled”, Mr Winters said.
The bank is the third ranked wealth manager in Asia, the sixth largest clearer of US dollars globally as well as the second largest clearer of US dollar transactions for companies in the Asia, Middle East and Africa, he said.
When asked if Standard Chartered will be a radically different financial institution under his leadership, Mr Winters said the core will remain its cross-border and affluent clients’ business five years from now.
That is “short form for what we do: multinational clients, corporates and financial institutions and wealthy people in our markets, and I'll be shocked if we're any different on that”, he said.
The nature of how that business will be done could be very different. “Five years from now, we could still be a leading payment bank, but it's likely to be entirely using digital assets, CBDCs, or stable coins or tokenised bank deposits … I don't know, the rails."
