E. Sun Bank is attempting to be a one-stop shop for wealth management needs of Taiwanese small and medium businesses (SMEs), providing them not only with financing and advisory services, but also with asset management and family wealth planning services.
Strategically focusing on catering to Taiwan’s SME market cannot be a bad idea. The number of small and medium enterprises in Taiwan reached a record 1.33 million last year, comprising 97.64% of firms nationwide, and accounted for 78.3%, or 8.59 million, of the workforce, according to Ministry of Economic Affairs.
SMEs are Taiwan’s economic backbone, unlike their East Asian neighbours, Japan, China and South Korea that are dominated by corporates.
Louis Chang, senior vice president and head of wealth management at E. Sun Bank, has been focusing on aiding family owned businesses with everything from tax advice to wealth management services, which is allowing them to gain a comprehensive view of their clients.
“Many of SME clients are family-owned businesses. We believe that these business owners’ personal finances, family finances and businesses are inseparable. So we have integrated our relevant departments to ensure that our relationship managers are able to discuss everything from financial planning to tax advice, and from insurance to family planning services,” says Chang.
According to Chang, his strategy has helped the bank increase the VIP customers’ asset under management by 40% for three years in a row. The bank has also been acquiring higher fees by providing their VIP clients with credit cards, mortgages and lending services.
E. Sun Bank has also been focused on building a team that focuses mainly on catering to owners of SMEs, especially family owned ones. These teams consists of people who work face-to-face with the SMEs owners, and provide them with real estate planning services and help with creating trust, and aiding them with selecting international bonds and managing their portfolio.
E. Sun Bank prides itself in not offering commissions and salary increases to its relationship managers that are connected to sales of products. According to Chang, this has allowed the banks’ relationship managers to build deeper relationships with its clients, and aid them with various businesses.
The clients of E. Sun Bank’s wealth management department who are business owners also gain access to short-term funding, which many of them need as they are in manufacturing and the services industries. Chang adds, “It’s important that we give our SME customers the flexibility in acquiring the financing they need when they need it.”
But E. Sun Bank is not the only bank operating in Taiwan’s SME industry, and in fact, all key players in Taiwan’s banking industry are also focused on catering to the island’s growing SME industry, as they continue to need credit lines to expand their businesses across Southeast Asia and Greater China and need family planning and wealth management services for their families.
DBS Taiwan in late 2014 began offering SMEs online business tools to better manage their businesses, such as supplying them with product finders, a working capital tools, and a loan calculator tool. Standard Chartered has also been cross selling their SME clients with wealth management products and services, as the bank has extensive networks in Mainland China, Hong Kong and South East Asia, and naturally, the local banks, such as Taipei Fubon Bank and CTBC Bank are also finding innovative ways to learn more about their SME clients to provide them with a full suite of wealth and financing services.
