Standard Chartered tailors UAE offerings to serve wealthy Chinese residents

Standard Chartered is targeting the growing number of Chinese individuals living, working and starting businesses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as part of a push to expand its wealth-management business.

“We now bank an increasing number of Asian clients, specifically Chinese families, in the UAE,” said Judy Hsu, the bank’s CEO of wealth and retail banking, in an exclusive interview. “It has become a growing hub for people who come and work, set up family offices and start their businesses.”

The bank did not disclose the number or percentage growth of its Chinese clients in the UAE. The overall population of Chinese citizens in the country was estimated at 400,000 at the end of 2022, twice the level in 2019, while about 6,000 Chinese enterprises were operating there, China’s ambassador to the country, Zhang Yiming, told local media at the time.

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Standard Chartered ramped up investments in the country’s affluent private-banking business over the past four years, bolstering its platforms and relationship managers to serve the growing demand for cross-border banking solutions, said Hsu, who was in Dubai last month for the bank’s flagship event for global family offices.

The move aligned with Standard Chartered’s overall strategy to promote wealth management as its growth engine by investing US$1.5 billion over the next five years. Its third-quarter fee and non-interest income increased 7 per cent from a year earlier to US$3.7 billion, after logging a 31 per cent surge in the previous quarter, thanks to product launches and the addition of rich clients.

Warming ties between Asia and the Middle East, as well as the UAE’s preferential immigration and tax policies, propelled the flow of people and capital, Hsu said.

Annual China-Middle East trade volume had grown to more than US$400 billion, according to government data, as countries in the region sought to diversify their economies and insulate against geopolitical shocks.

Chinese state-owned enterprises, including major oil companies, were among the first to establish a presence in the UAE, followed by businesses linked to their supply chains and entrepreneurs setting up operations in the region, Hsu said.

A view of buildings in Abu Dhabi on June 26, 2023. Photo: AFP alt=A view of buildings in Abu Dhabi on June 26, 2023. Photo: AFP>

“A number of the affluent population of the global Chinese came here to live and start businesses, to support the local economy,” Hsu said, citing sectors like education and technology. The pattern was different from that seen in Singapore, where many people from mainland China opened accounts without relocating, she added.

To meet the demand of Chinese clients and address the language barrier, Standard Chartered hired more relationship managers from mainland China and Hong Kong in the UAE. While that number was not disclosed, the overall relationship managers increased by 20 per cent this year compared with a year ago.

“Language is still important, so we need a local platform to support them as their wealth grows,” Hsu said.

Additionally, the bank provides both onshore and offshore banking.

Hsu said the onshore leg offered local-currency products such as mortgages to take advantage of the growing property market in the country. The offshore element was operated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), an independent financial free zone governed by its own laws and courts, where clients could invest in products and services based in Singapore or Hong Kong, she added.

One of the key propositions the bank offered was cross-border asset-backed lending, which allowed clients to use their investments, assets or properties to borrow in another market, Hsu said. “Many of our clients have accounts in the local platform, our DIFC and Hong Kong, and what we’re doing right now is to link all these relationships together,” she said.

In September, Hong Kong’s market regulator signed initial accords with its UAE counterpart to allow public investment funds to be distributed seamlessly in both markets.

“If you look at onshore, only a few international players like us have these expansive products,” said Hsu. “We have brought in a lot of our capabilities onshore, and the regulators here have supported us.”

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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