By Melissa Luz T. Lopez
Senior Reporter
There is a huge scope to expand private banking in the Philippines at a time of a rapidly growing economy, with the likes of asset manager Lombard Odier looking to tap this pool of wealth.
It may come as a surprise for a private bank based in Switzerland to come to Manila in search of “ultra-high” net-worth clients, but this apparently stands as the perfect market as conglomerates — most of them run by old rich families — sit on mounds of cash.
“This is a country where wealth is being created,” Patrick Odier, chairman of the board and senior managing partner at the Geneva-based Lombard Odier, said in a recent interview with BusinessWorld.
“[T]he Philippines is a big country and if the potential growth of the Philippines is the one that we perceive — we’re talking here economic growth, industrial growth, service growth — I think it really create[s] wealth.”
Lombard Odier, which boasts of a 222-year history as a pillar in the global asset management industry, has looked to the Philippine market in search of opportunities to broaden its wealth base.
In 2016, the Swiss firm partnered with Union Bank of the Philippines to foray into the local market and offer global investment options to clients here. It saw opportunities given the Philippines’ “deeply entrepreneurial” and “family-rooted” tradition, Mr. Odier said.
Mr. Odier said his group saw UnionBank as their best shot in venturing into the Philippine market. The parallels could not be missed — like Lombard Odier, which has been passed on to the sixth generation, UnionBank has been run by several generations of Cebu’s Aboitiz clan, one of the country’s richest families.
The foreign bank has $274 billion worth of assets under management as of end-2017. Apart from the Philippines, it has also expanded its presence to Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, to name a few.
“It makes a lot of sense at a time where one anywhere in the world has to look at risk diversification. You cannot afford being just locally invested,” Mr. Odier added.
“These are solution services that have been already developed in many parts of the world and should not necessarily be very different here in the Philippines. It’s just a question of understanding and having access and trust relationship with these people. UnionBank can do that.”
For his part, UnionBank Chief Finance Officer Jose Emmanuel U. Hilado noted that the Lombard Odier link will allow Filipino players to make big but safe bets offshore: “Our strength has always been in the local markets but there’s always a need for our own clients to diversify their portfolio to global markets.”
Philippine banks held P2.542 trillion assets under management as of end-2017, according to central bank data.
Asked for some tips in preserving family wealth through generations, Mr. Odier said having business succession plans as well as family charters would ensure a more “efficient” transfer of wealth and know-how within the bloodline.
Mr. Odier said Lombard Odier’s “bespoke” approach to wealth management keeps it competitive since 1796, which comes alongside agility in anticipating risks in the global financial scene.
The same fervor is seen to propel the two banks as an industry leader over the coming years.
“In terms of clientele, we see today very strong growth. If you compound that growth over the next five years, I think we are going to be and we want to be the reference private bank — and we will be in the next five years, I suppose,” Mr. Odier added.
However, he clarified that the bank is not after volume as it woos local billionaires: “I prefer to have a very selective group of families and entrepreneurs that are very happy for us, because it means that ultimately their wealth has been well-protected and probably growing at a satisfactory rate.”​

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