Siam Commercial Bank Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Wealth Banking Officer, Dr. Yunyong Thaicharoen (middle); First Executive Vice President and Head of the Private Banking Function Lalitphat Toranavikrai (left); and Executive Vice President of the SCB Chief Investment Office and Product Functions, Sornchai Suneta (right) reaffirmed the bank's success yet again by winning the world's most prestigious Best Domestic Private Bank awards at the 2022 ASIAN PRIVATE BANKER / 12th Awards for Distinction event in three categories, namely Digital Innovation and Services, CIO Office, and Discretionary Portfolio Management. Held recently at the JW Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong, the event was organized by Asia's leading multi-platform media company specializing in wealth management.
The Asian Private Banker judging panel recognized the SCB Wealth team's exceptional commitment and dedication during the COVID-19 pandemic in developing a personalized digital platform called the Wealth Platform, or wplan, for investment planning. Using brain capability technology and data analytics capabilities, the platform embraces a hybrid advisory approach to better offer personalized asset allocation strategies for each individual customer to ensure investment portfolios are aligned with their goals. Additionally, the platform integrates with the SCB Easy app to provide a wide range of investment options through an open architecture approach, enabling the bank to achieve its goal of becoming a "Digital Bank with a Human Touch," while positioning itself as a leader in digital wealth management.
SCB's investment team and business partners work closely together to identify products that meet the needs of ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI). The Asian Private Banker panel recognized the potential and professional expertise of SCB CIO's team in managing Alpha fund portfolios, which allocate individual investment assets to only 7-15 securities, providing stable long-term returns to customers. The bank also offers a portfolio designed specifically for individual customers, with asset allocation adjusted in a timely manner to suit changing market conditions in a Discretionary Portfolio Management (DPM) format. The SCB CIO has developed a Strategy Asset Allocation (SAA) and Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) appropriate for changing investment conditions, with a total return of 41.07% over the past five years (2016-2021), while the standard deviation was 9.44%.
To distribute risks effectively, the bank offers a selection of investment products suitable for each investment condition, including private equities, private debts, various types of structured notes, such as KIKO and Shark Fin, and investing through property-backed loans and Lombard loans, among others. These products enable customers to create balance in their investment portfolios during times when the market experiences economic downturns amid the Fed's continuing interest rate hike to mitigate inflation problems. The bank also promotes environmentally, socially, and governance (ESG) conscious products through ESG funds with a 4-5-star sustainability rating from Morningstar. This continuous effort has resulted in the bank having a net asset value (AUM) of the #1 ranked ESG fund in the industry, with over 80 funds for customers to choose from.