India’s Growing Wealthy Are Grabbing Advisors’ Attention

More rupees are ready to be managed in India, and players both at home and abroad are gearing up to court the “Billionaire Raj.”

Last year, the country generated almost $590 billion in new financial wealth, its largest increase in history, according to the Boston Consulting Group. That’s projected to grow to $730 billion annually through 2028. India has quite a few very wealthy citizens, too: 200 billionaires by Forbes’ count. Those impressive projections have grabbed the attention of private-equity firms that are already placing their bets in the country’s wealthtech startups. Analysts see even more opportunity in full-fledged wealth management, and the competition is heating up.

Race to the Top

There’s strength in numbers, and that sounds like a pretty good strategy to the State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender. SBI, which recently beat analysts’ earnings estimates, is deploying 2,000 executives to act as relationship managers and focus on building ties with smaller companies throughout the nation, according to Bloomberg:

• SBI originally launched its wealth unit in 2016 and now offers the services at roughly 100 major centers across the country through a network of 230 wealth hubs. 
• But Chairman Dinesh Khara called the unit “old”; he wants to evolve its business strategy.

And India’s largest wealth manager is also making waves. 360 One WAM acquired mutual fund investing app ET Money for $44 million in June, and is building out a $200 million fund focused on emerging markets.

Journey from the West: American and UK firms are expanding their footprints (and AUMs, of course) in India as well. In April, BlackRock agreed to a joint venture with India’s Jio Financial Services to offer wealth management and brokerage services in the country roughly a year after the two had set up asset management services there. Barclays is aiming to quadruple its private banking assets in Asia by the end of 2028, and is planning a hiring spree, tripling its staff in India and Singapore, Bloomberg reported.