3  Ibid. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  As income increases and wealth accumulates, the demand for modern services is likely to grow faster, as they have higher income elasticities. Thus, we expect that demand for financial services in Asia – such as wealth management – will rise more than proportionately to the increase in household income. For instance, assets under management attributed to mass affluent and high net worth investors in Asia is expected to expand by 60% to reach USD 176 trillion by 2020. 4 7. These positive economic factors will continue to drive the growth of Asian financial institutions and Asian capital markets. Today, five of the top ten largest banks in the world by market capitalisation are Asian banks. 5 Primary market capital-raising in Asia via IPOs is the highest in the world. In the debt market, capital raised via Asian bond issuances have also doubled since 2009 after having achieved record sales in each of the past three years. II. Asia’s capital markets are ripe for closer integration  8. The strong growth of Asian economies and financial markets has created the conditions that are driving greater financial integration in the region. In China, home to the largest bank in the world by assets, banks and asset managers have acquired sufficient scale domestically to expand and look abroad to grow their businesses. Since 2012, the total amount of RQFII quota awarded by China has more than doubled for qualified foreign institutional investors to purchase mainland RMB-denominated securities.
This approach is quite unique to Singapore and it has served us well. 8  BIS central bankers’ speeches