Sarasin spurns Asian 'beauty contest'

SINGAPORE: Bank Sarasin & Cie will forego acquisitions as it expands in Asia, its fastest-growing market, even as hiring gets more challenging as private banks compete for talent.

Sarasin, the Swiss private bank controlled by Rabobank Groep NV, more than doubled the number of relationship managers in Asia to about 60 and tripled the assets managed for rich clients in the last two years, Enid Yip, Sarasin's chief executive officer for the region, said in an interview. She declined to give a specific target for hiring next year.

The Basel, Switzerland-based firm hired nine private bankers in Singapore from UBS AG in the past two months, stepping up efforts to win a bigger slice of fees from Asia's richest people. The assets of millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region will exceed those of North America by 2013, Merrill Lynch and Capgemini said in a survey published in October.