Previously, Asia’s rich were “typically very busy with business, so they looked to bankers to help them manage their wealth,” Alice Tan, head of group wealth management for Malaysian bank Maybank, tells Fortune.
The next generation, however, usually has an overseas education and comfort with financial instruments. “Some are even the chief investment officer in their family offices,” Tan says.
Wealth management providers are thus taking a step back, allowing younger clientele to “call the shots,” and instead engaging them in “healthy, intellectual discussions” on finance.
With 2024 revenue of $15.1 billion, Maybank is No. 19 on the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 list, which measures the region’s largest companies by revenue. It’s also the highest ranked country from Malaysia on the list.
Today, the bank has an expansive suite of wealth management options, with Tan overseeing its privilege wealth, premier wealth, private wealth and Islamic wealth segments.
With total assets of $240 billion, it is also Southeast Asia’s largest Islamic bank, and sits within the top five of the world’s largest Islamic finance institutions.
While Maybank operates throughout Southeast Asia, the bank is concentrated in three markets: Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Tan is “definitely bullish” on Southeast Asia’s economy, citing a young population and consistent economic growth.
Islamic banking is a financial system based on Islamic law, or shariah, which avoids interest and excessive speculation while focusing on ethical investments and asset-backed transactions. Islamic wealth management, for example, tries to manage wealth according to Islamlic principles, such as by including principles like zakat, the Islamic principle of charity, into its funds.
a Shariah-compliant method of helping high-net-worth individuals grow their finances, is a key pillar of that. It involves five key concepts: the creation, accumulation, preservation, purification and distribution of wealth.
“We don’t think that Islamic wealth management is only for Muslims,” Tan tells Fortune. “A lot of it is about values and doing good, so it attracts a wider crowd and appeals especially to the young.”
Tan hopes that Maybank can deepen its wealth management business in Cambodia and the Philippines, building off its existing wholesale banking infrastructure. Cambodia’s banking landscape is in its “infancy,” she said, adding that she wants Maybank to be one of the first institutions to offer wealth management products there.
Tan is also eyeing other high-growth markets in Asia, like Vietnam and Greater China. “We want to be firmly established as a leading ASEAN financial institution and wealth provider,” she says.
