Merrill Lynch plans to expand its Australian wealth management business this year as the resource-driven local economy continues to create more millionaires, a top executive with the US investment bank said on July 08. However, there were risks to the domestic economy from high interest rates and a strong Australian dollar, while the country would not be immune to global market turmoil.
Merrill expects the number of wealthy Australians, defined as individuals with assets in excess of A$1 million ($952,000), to grow further this year, though the rate of growth could slow from the previous year, Thomas Alexy, the head of Merrill Lynch's Australian wealth management division, told Reuters in an interview.
Merrill's Australian wealth management team has 40 people, a third more than it had at the start of the year. "We are continuing to grow and give offers. Our door is open," Alexy said. Australia had an estimated 172,000 high net worth individuals at the end of 2007, up 7 percent on the previous year, according to a report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.
The total wealth of Australian high net worth individuals rose 8.4 percent to $508 billion in 2007, while the average of wealth of Australian high net worth individuals stood at $3.2 million, compared with a global average of $4.04 million, the report said. The hiring plan in wealth management comes even as Merrill continues to shrink its investment banking team due to the global credit crisis.
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