Maybank's Alvin Lee Reveals Changes In Investment Behaviour, Wealth Preservation

Globalisation is no longer the best strategy for banks if they wish to thrive in the new era of investing.

The age of cheap money is over. Likewise, investors’ priorities on where to park their wealth moving forward have also transformed in the past three years - with health and ESG as key considerations.

“The pivot from just pure profit making endeavors, to investing in something that will help to preserve the well-being of the investors and their family was quite stark,” Maybank’s Alvin Lee told Asian Banking & Finance.

The head of Group Wealth Management and Community Financial Services at Maybank was answering a question on the current state of investing and wealth management in Asia and he added, “There was a realisation that wealth was not everything, [that] health was important.” Gone were the days when globalisation was the only key strategy that banks needed to heed.

“We have entered into a multi-year period when investors have to be used to higher inflation, higher interest rates, and more protectionism amongst the different countries,” Lee said.

Here are more interesting observations on the changing priorities of investors and wealth management customers that came to light in this interview.

It’s understandable that during the pandemic and the geopolitical crisis after, some investors may have adopted a cautious approach. In 2023, does such caution continue to reign or influence investment attitudes?

If we are strictly looking at 2023, we were just coming out of the pandemic, and then we entered into the Ukraine-Russian war, so energy prices rose. Just as we thought that things were okay, we saw Silicon Valley Bank failing, and then now a bit of an issue with the Swiss private banks. We kind of moved from one problem into another.