Interview with Li Feng, Vice President of Standard Chartered China

The fragrant smell and warm tones are the first impressions of brokerage China reporters when they step into this priority private wealth management center.

Recently, Standard Chartered Bank (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Standard Chartered China") Nanjing West Road Sub-branch Priority Private Wealth Management Center officially opened its doors, which is the first priority private wealth management center in China.

With some curiosity, the reporter boarded up to the office on the 27th floor, visited the first priority private wealth management center in the mainland of Standard Chartered China, and had an in-depth exchange with Li Feng, Vice President and Managing Director of the Personal, Private and SME Banking Division of Standard Chartered China, to talk about the characteristics and opportunities of China's wealth management market.

Since opening its first branch in Shanghai in 1858, Standard Chartered has been operating in China for more than 160 years. In April 2007, Standard Chartered China became one of the first batch of local incorporated banks. On 22 February 2022, Standard Chartered China announced its intention to appoint Li Feng as Managing Director of Standard Chartered China's Personal, Private and SME Banking Division. Li Feng, who has been deeply involved in foreign banks for nearly 30 years, has extensive experience in the field of personal finance and wealth management.

(Li Feng, Vice President and Managing Director, Personal, Private & SME Banking, Standard Chartered China)

Strengthen investment and development in China

The general consensus within Standard Chartered is that China will continue to be the largest investment market in the Standard Chartered global network.

Walking into the customer communication office of the Priority Private Banking Center, the first thing that caught the reporter's eye was the overlook of many buildings in Jing'an District, Shanghai. On the day of the reporter's visit, it coincided with a high-net-worth group client sharing meeting organized by the center, where people came and went, and the space was filled with eager discussions.

At the beginning of last year, Standard Chartered announced that it would invest US$300 million in China-related businesses over the next three years to better support clients in capitalizing on the opportunities arising from China's continued opening-up. It is understood that the investment plan is progressing well, mainly in the areas of digitalization, business outlets and business networks, talent, risk control and compliance, as well as RMB internationalization and wealth management.

"With strong support at the group level, we have also become one of the most committed wealth management retail banks in the Chinese market. Li Feng bluntly said that retail banking business is a very important foothold for Standard Chartered China under the overall planning.

In Li Feng's view, Standard Chartered China's retail banking business segment has a "full position" positioning - not only to be a mass market, but also a mass affluent market, as well as a market covering high-net-worth individuals, and to enter the Chinese market in an all-round way. In the process of digitalization, Standard Chartered actively adopts the form of digital platform to conduct business, which also lays a very good foundation for inclusive finance.

Interestingly, in the wealth management services of high-net-worth individuals, Standard Chartered China does not have the so-called "private bank" team label, but clearly focuses on the private group of retail banks. "From our point of view, the operation mode of private banks in China may not fully reflect the advantages, but is based on the services of high-net-worth individuals of retail banks, which can better reflect the value and significance of existence. Li Feng explained.

Wealth Management Value Proposition

As an important highland of the bank's retail ecosystem, the individual demands of high-net-worth customers are more prominent, the wealth structure is more diversified, and the family business inheritance and comprehensive financial needs are more in-depth.

It is reported that since the release of Standard Chartered Wealth Management's value proposition of "Wisdom and Wealth Unbounded" last year, Standard Chartered has also refined four core competitiveness: Insight, Leverage (ESG sustainable investment), Open architecture, and Empowerment ("Financial Nutritionist" concept).

In February this year, Standard Chartered China also launched a new customer value proposition for its Priority Private Wealth Management business, "Be Truly Comfortable, Hony Makes a Difference". The reporter learned that when the priority private wealth management center was put into operation, the new service framework of Standard Chartered China's priority private wealth management was also fully launched.

Relying on the "four new" of "new opportunities for wealth, new realms of privilege, new future for the community, and new paths for inheritance", the service framework aims to provide high-net-worth clients with services covering global wealth management, global courtesy experience, corporate social welfare, family wealth inheritance, etc., to meet the diversified needs of customers for wealth management and "above wealth", such as global asset allocation, one-stop inheritance planning, etc.

Actively embrace market changes

Li Feng also has some unique observations about the changes in the wealth market and investors' mentality, "After the new capital regulations, people will now truly understand what wealth management is, because the chaos of third-party commitments such as guaranteed principal and income has indeed disappeared." ”

Li Feng found that the average investor's awareness of investor education, risk tolerance and risk appetite has increased significantly, and some of the core values of wealth management (e.g., financial planning) can also be well reflected in this opportunity.

In addition, the demands and needs of ordinary people for the so-called global wealth management or asset allocation are also emerging, "which is why we are very much looking forward to the continuous development and growth of mechanisms such as QDII and Wealth Management Connect." Li Feng mentioned that people's global awareness and awareness of the interaction between different markets can be well improved, and the demand for transnational financial services has been further strengthened.

It is worth mentioning that China's green and low-carbon development in recent years has also exceeded the imagination of Standard Chartered China's management. From an internal point of view, Standard Chartered China also attaches great importance to the concept of "green", and has made arrangements from a strategic level, and the product system is relatively rich, and the scale of green certificate of deposit is not small.

From the perspective of the company's business, it is also making some new attempts at green financing, and now it is focusing more on transition financing. Li Feng said that this is also more challenging, "In the past, we may have specifically supported 'green' enterprises and industries, but now in addition to supporting 'green', we also have to help those who are not 'green' now, to make it 'green' in the future and think about how to 'green', which is the meaning of transition financing." ”

"This is also what we need to do as a financial institution, and it is what investors and consumers need to do, because I have always used one of my favorite words in this regard - 'Sustainable investment is not just for value, but also for values'. Li Feng shared.

Editor-in-charge: Tactical Heng

Proofreading: Ran Yanqing