By Gabriel Chen

THE growth of private banking and wealth management in regional centres such as Singapore has more to do with Asians getting richer than cash flowing in from Europe.

That is the view of Dr Urs Roth, chief executive of the Swiss Bankers Association, who was speaking at a media lunch yesterday.

Dr Roth said the notion that Switzerland and other European financial centres could lose a big part of their assets after their recent moves to ease banking secrecy amid increasing international pressure was not exactly true.

'We've not seen, so far, a large degree or a significant outflow of assets from Europe to this part of the world,' said Dr Roth. 'For the time being, we see the Asian financial centres very much as financial centres which attract the regional wealth.'

His comments come at a time when Switzerland, the world's largest offshore financial centre, has along with many other European nations agreed to accept concessions governing bank secrecy.

The Swiss government said earlier this year that it would accept standards laid down by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to allow the exchange of information about their clients with other countries.

Analysts have since predicted that smaller private banks with significant European clientele would be most affected, with up to half of their assets under management at risk of repatriation from Switzerland.

Despite his optimism so far, Dr Roth has cautioned that wealth could still flow out of Europe if tax enforcement there were to go overboard.

'If regulation goes overboard, then yes, wealth might flow out of Europe. And this is something that European governments should be aware of.'

While the Swiss government has relaxed bank secrecy laws, it has resolutely rejected any 'automatic exchange of information' and has pledged to limit exchanges to instances where 'specific and justified' requests for taxpayer information have been made.

Dr Roth predicted there will still be many wealth management hubs five years from now, with no single centre dominating. These hubs include Singapore, Tokyo, New York, London, Zurich, Geneva, Hong Kong.

He added that the most challenging issue for private banks both in Europe and Asia remains retaining and finding the right talent.

The association represents more than 400 Swiss banks.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.