Morgan Stanley to hire 50% more private bankers in India

Morgan Stanley plans to increase the number of private bankers in India by 50 per cent within a year, Amitava Neogi, executive director at Morgan Stanley’s Indian wealth management unit, said in an interview on Monday.

“The wealth in Asia and emerging markets is growing thanks to economic growth,” said Mumbai-based Neogi, who plans to add 20 advisers to the 40 employed in the South Asian nation. “India has favourable demographics, entrepreneurial spirit and a growing young population with increasing purchasing power.”

India’s economy expanded 8.6 per cent in the three months through March. The number of billionaires in the nation rose to 52 from 27, Forbes magazine said last year.

Wealth in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to rise at almost double the global rate, according to an annual study by the Boston Consulting Group.

The region will increase its share of global wealth from 15 per cent last year to almost 20 per cent in 2014, with China and India the engines of growth, according to the report released on June 10. Together, the two countries will make up 75 per cent, or almost $9 trillion, of the increase in assets managed in the region.

Asian billionaires including India’s Mukesh Ambani and Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing increased their wealth as the region’s rich expanded their fortunes at the world’s quickest pace in the past year, Forbes said.

Morgan Stanley plans to double its private bankers in Asia over the next three years, Charles Mak, head of private wealth management for Asia, has said.