THE WEALTH management arm of Union Bank of the Philippines, Inc. (UnionBank) expects sustained growth in its assets under management (AUM) despite market volatility.
“There is volatility now, but I think it’s relatively more stable because you at least know which direction the winds are blowing in. I think there has been some improvement in the equity markets, and that is helping out in terms of customers having more options. That is driving better momentum in terms of throughputs and volumes that are coming into the market,” UnionBank Wealth Management Sales Network Head Gautam Sharma told BusinessWorld at an event last month.
“Clients’ risk appetite has improved this year, and that is helping in terms of taking a wide variety of products to them.”
Mr. Sharma said their AUMs grew by about 10% year on year in 2024.
“We’ve had a fairly robust growth of double digits in both our revenues in our number of acquisitions and in our AUM, it’s close to 10%. It’s been a pretty healthy growth that we’ve seen across all our business metrics last year, and we started very strong this year as well,” he said.
“So, I think in advisory business, which is what we are in, in wealth management, clients wanting to do more products, being open to more ideas, being open to rebalance their portfolios, which have been static for a long time, are very good signs. And we’ve been seeing tailwinds from that.”
UnionBank’s wealth segment also expects customer growth to be driven by its restructuring, Mr. Sharma said.
“I think we are looking to beat the record of the last three years in terms of the total number of Elite and Access customers that we get through. Earlier, we were restricted in the three wealth branches through which we used to expand. Now, it’s the whole power of all our branches that’s helping us grow our wealth base,” he said.
UnionBank last month unveiled its enhanced Wealth Management Center at its The Ark branch in Makati City.
UnionBank Chief Marketing Officer Albert Raymond C. Cuadrante said the bank may open another center in Bonifacio Global City.
“This (The Ark) is on pilot. Depending on how this does, the next will probably be BGC for the same model,” he said.
He added that the bank could finish renovating all its branches by 2026, with 150 out of 198 branches already done.
“There are some branches that we are still thinking about whether we will relocate to better locations or close,” Mr. Cuadrante said.
UnionBank is also looking to open more branches in the provinces this year as well as in “big, urban cities which are not too saturated,” such as in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon), Cebu, or Cagayan de Oro, he added. — Aaron Michael C. Sy
