ANOTHER round of musical chairs is being played out in Singapore's wealth management sector, with private bankers a hot commodity as banks compete to woo Asia's growing pool of seriously rich.

Half-a-dozen private bankers have left UBS in Singapore to join US rival Goldman Sachs, Reuters reported yesterday.

The six, who include senior private banker Tan Shern Liang, joined Goldman last month. UBS is the world's biggest wealth manager, with US$100 billion of assets in Asia.

Deutsche Bank also said it has hired 18 people for its private banking business from Citigroup in Singapore, including investment advisers and product specialists.

BT understands that none of them was relationship manager at Citigroup, although they could be assuming this position at Deutsche.

The latest movements are no surprise to industry watchers.

'It's the time of the year, after bonuses are paid, when people move,' said one market player. 'It's an industry with a turnover of 20-25 per cent, so things have to be seen in that context.'

The departures from Citigroup were not unexpected, given that in February, Ravi Raju - who was managing director and head of investments for Asia-Pacific and Middle East at Citigroup's global wealth management division - left for Deutsche, banking sources said.

A similar round of musical chairs occurred last year after bonus time, with local bank OCBC Bank, for instance, losing almost a third of its private bankers to foreign banks such as UBS and Credit Suisse.

Surging economic growth in Asia has created a class of 'new rich' - particularly in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India - and private banks have been scrambling to hire staff who can bring in new clients and their money.

A Merrill Lynch-Capgemini report recently said the wealth of millionaires in Asia is expected to grow 6.7 per cent a year to US$10.6 trillion by 2010.

Private banking assets under management in Singapore have grown an average 20 per cent a year over the past few years to US$200 billion, according to central bank figures.

A shortage of private bankers in Singapore, however, has led to banks poaching from one other.

UBS declined to comment on the latest departures, but industry observers say the bank continues to have lower-than-average staff turnover despite the intensely competitive market.

UBS has more than 20 people serving key clients in Singapore, part of a larger dedicated regional key client team of about 60 bankers.

It is also launching the UBS Wealth Management Campus for Asia Pacific in Singapore later this week - its long-term response to the need to deepen and broaden the talent pool.

Responding to the movements, a spokesman for Citigroup Private Bank said staff turnover 'remains well within industry standards'.

'The Citigroup Private Bank continues to attract talent from all over the wealth management industry and is in fact recruiting actively in order to meet the demands of a growing business, especially in high-growth onshore markets like China and India,' he said.

Citigroup has more than 300 private bankers and product specialists serving wealthy clients in the region.

The appointment earlier this week of Deepak Sharma as its head of international wealth management, based in Singapore, also means that some international operations that are already based here may grow in line with expanding business needs and create more opportunities for wealth managers here.