关注社会:私人银行的亚洲机遇

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•冯•德尼肯(Didier von Daeniken)说，在为欧洲、中东和亚洲地区的富人理财18年之后，他发现不管是哪个地方的富人，关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.

冯•德尼肯现年48岁，2007年以来一直担任巴克莱集团(Barclays PLC)旗下私人银行巴克莱财富(Barclays Wealth)的亚太区负责人。他说，各地区经济周期或许并不一样，或许亚洲地区的富一代更多，但企业家毕竟是企业家。

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.

巴克莱正在大力拓展其全球私人银行业务，过去两年它在技术和新招聘人员方面投入了3.5亿英镑（合5.49亿美元）。该公司预计未来的业务增长主要来自亚洲，因为该地区经济的蓬勃发展已经造就了一代新富。

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.

巴克莱在亚洲地区的私人银行业务一直在稳健增长。据冯•德尼肯说，去年公司在该地区管理的资产增加了25%，延续了过去五年的增势。虽然巴克莱并不单独列出各地区管理资产的数额，但据冯•德尼肯说，在截至6月底巴克莱管理的1,760亿英镑全球资产当中，亚洲地区约占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.

不过，亚洲并不是西方私人银脱困的灵丹妙药。首先，随着人才争夺导致薪资猛增，成本正在增加。其次，在亚洲地区做私人银行需要一种新商业模式。在西方，多数客户一直是为其私人银行支付一笔固定的管理费，这就给银行带来了稳定而有保障的收入，而亚洲客户则更喜欢按交易付费。

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.

常驻新加坡的冯•德尼肯前不久接受《华尔街日报》记者Jason Chow专访，谈亚洲市场的挑战，谈他为什么看好日本，为什么不惜重金聘请资深银行家。

The following interview has been edited.

以下是经过编辑的访谈内容。

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

《华尔街日报》：亚洲私人银行的机会在哪里？

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.

冯•德尼肯：只要几个主要经济体大量创造财富，市场就会不断增长。对我们来说，这意味着要瞄准大中华区、印度尼西亚和印度。这没有什么好奇怪的。

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.

另外还要加上日本。这听起来不合常理，因为人人都会跟你讲日本失去的几十年。但实际情况好像不是这样。比如在去年，日本市场（按高净值个人数量计算）就扩大了4.2%左右。如果你到日本四处看看，就会发现日本富人相当之多。看他们开的车，穿的衣服，就知道他们相当有钱。

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?

《华尔街日报》：过去，私人银行一直是收取资产管理费，但亚洲富人更愿意按交易付费。你们的商业模式是否需要为亚洲而变？

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.

冯•德尼肯：我认为就是在欧洲，商业模式也在发生变化。这是对这个时代的一种反映，而不一定是对地理位置的反映。即便是在今天，欧洲也比人们所认为的更加以交易为导向。

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，规模非常重要。我们认为，要想在亚洲实现盈利，管理的资产至少得有200亿美元到250亿美元。

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

《华尔街日报》：随着各个银行在亚洲大力扩张，你们怎样控制成本，特别是薪酬方面的成本？

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.

冯•德尼肯：2008年，我们把受聘银行家的素质定为我们战略的核心原则之一。我们称之为倒金字塔结构。

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.

我们跟伦敦总部讲，到2012年年底，董事总经理（15年或以上资历）要占60%，副总裁占30%，助理副总裁占10%。2008年董事总经理才占17%。

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

这不可避免地要涉及到成本。不过从另一个角度来看，如果你想给予客户优质建议，资历是非常重要的。

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.

这是在宣告：我们超过半数的银行家都是资深业者。把我们拿去跟竞争对手比一比吧。在大多数竞争对手的组织结构中，半数以上都是为资深银行家打下手的资历较浅者。我们认为这种模式是完全错误的。

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

《华尔街日报》：在大家都相互挖角的环境下，你们用什么办法留住人才？

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.

冯•德尼肯：有些银行家的确开价过高……但由于我们是一家小规模机构，我们不需要一年聘请120位银行家。如果某一年我们聘用了25位银行家，我就非常满意了。要在整个亚洲找到150名优秀银行家，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?

《华尔街日报》：亚洲地区很多客户在上次衰退期间因为投资失利而受伤，他们对私人银行并不满意，你们用什么办法来应对他们的这种认知呢？

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

冯•德尼肯：理解客户是很重要的。这听起来是非常基本的东西。

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?'

谈论风险并不需要利用多么复杂的工具。银行家的首要职责之一，是一次又一次地问“你确定吗”、“你知道我们说的是怎么一回事吗” 、“你是否了解自己投资组合的风险”。

WSJ: What is the biggest risk to growth?

《华尔街日报》：业务增长面临的最大风险是什么？

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.

冯•德尼肯：亚洲经济表现不佳──这是主要风险，这意味着我们客户的收入将会减少，这样一来他们用于投资的资金也会减少。但也就这样一种风险。

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

《华尔街日报》：你会担心竞争对手在私人银行这块蛋糕中获得了较大的份额吗？

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

冯•德尼肯：我更担心的是这块蛋糕变小。

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.

通过扩充银行家的人数，我们实现了扩张。银行家会带来客户，这成了我们扩充资产规模的重要贡献因素。在接下来五六年里，越来越有效地满足客户需求将是非常重要的。第一阶段是让银行家把他们的客户人脉带过来。下一阶段是让客户来宣传我们取得的成绩。