By Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -DBS Private Bank, part of Singapore's biggest bank DBS Group, said on Tuesday its bank-backed multi-family office platform has reached S$1 billion ($780 million) in assets under management two years after launch and is on track to hit S$2 billion by end-2026.
Family offices are private firms that the ultra wealthy use to manage their money, taxes and succession plans. Multi-family offices provide most of the same services as single-family offices but to more
than one family using shared resources.
The milestone by DBS Multi Family Office Foundry VCC (DBS MFO) reflects Singapore's appeal as a base for family wealth at a time of growing global economic uncertainty and market volatility.
DBS MFO lets wealthy families set up a Singapore-based investment vehicle without building a single-family office from scratch, with DBS handling the administration while clients choose their own investments.
"In the last nine months, we've seen more things happen than maybe the last nine years," DBS Private Bank's Group Head of Wealth Planning, Family Office and Insurance Solutions Lee Woon Shiu told Reuters.
"This really heightened sense of insecurity that's triggered by this state of flux, this state of uncertainty, this state of volatility is making clients very nervous, and that has actually fast-tracked some of these clients' decision-making process."
He added that the S$1 billion AUM are all new assets, with a broad mix of clients from Europe, India, Greater China and the rest of Asia.
Lee said DBS is in talks with more than 15 prospects and on track to double the AUM to S$2 billion by end-2026, as clients are seeking clarity and certainty in a jurisdiction like Singapore which they view as predictable, transparent and flexible.
Launched in 2023, the DBS MFO has onboarded more than 25 families and requires a minimum investment of S$15 million per sub-fund.
It leverages the umbrella variable capital company or VCC, a corporate structure launched by the city-state in 2020. Unlike traditional single-family office setups that require three to four months, DBS MFO allows onboarding within a month.
Lee said the platform can also be used by wealthy families to try Singapore before deciding whether to upgrade to a full single-family office and is popular in Taiwan, Japan and the UK.
DBS provides banking services to more than one-third of single-family offices established in Singapore and said that its family office AUM has more than doubled over the past two years. DBS did not provide details of this AUM.
($1 = 1.2817 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
