Bank of Communications Private Banking is smaller than other state-owned players but it has shown great potential and strong growth over the years. It is led by Mei Jinzhi, president, private banking department, Bank of Communications.
The bank has provided private-banking services since 2008, but last year was the 10th anniversary of BoCom receiving its private-banking licence. In 2021, it managed an annual increase in both assets under management and number of clients of about 15%, while its operating profit was 22% higher than in 2020.
BoCom expanded at a faster pace than some of its bigger private-banking rivals despite having far fewer domestic branches. And that in itself is an impressive story.
Behind the steady performance was BoCom’s continued effort in shifting to asset allocation from product sales, as well as the full implementation of its ‘1+1+N’ strategy last year, which the bank first introduced on a pilot basis in 2019.
A mainstream strategy that has been adopted by others too, ‘1+1+N’ means that each of BoCom’s nearly 70,000 high net-worth clients will have one dedicated relationship manager and one investment adviser serving their private-banking needs.
They