Asking the right questions

As VP Bank sets its eyes on the Asian market, its newly appointed Asia CEO Pamela Hsu Phua is leading the charge by getting to the bottom of what clients really want.

- CHARMIAN LEONG

Blame the pandemic all you want, but crisis periods are invaluable in providing perspective. Factors like our low-tax regime and free-market credentials have been attracting a healthy flow of foreign funds in recent years, but those reasons are now secondary to Singapore’s reputation as a safe haven amid Covid-19. Last year, the total assets under management of Singapore wealth management increased by 17 per cent to a staggering US$3.5 trillion (S$4.7 trillion).

With the world’s ultra-wealthy redirecting their attention here, even boutique private banking outfits like VP Bank have a solid chance at scaling. At least that’s what its newly appointed Asia CEO Pamela Hsu Phua plans to do in the next five years. “Our strategy for 2026 is to evolve, to scale, and to move,” she says. To do that, Hsu Phua, who left Pictet to join the Singapore office of the Liechtenstein-based bank in July, is looking at ways to increase engagement with their clients.

This is prefaced by the bank opening a brand-new Client Solutions division last year that will create access to new investment opportunities in the private market—an asset class that has traditionally been difficult to invest in thanks to high minimum amounts, non-transparent fee structures, and a lack of flexibility in the composition of product elements.

“We know that companies are staying private for longer, so we think about what the client wants to do. Do they want to wait until they get listed and go in with the rest of the market, or do they want to get in the game early? How do we bring together our networks in Europe and Asia, from our intermediaries to our private clients, so that we can have an exchange of ideas and deal flows?”