Banks across Asia and Southeast Asia are shifting their focus toward strengthening customer relationships and enhancing the overall banking experience, rather than competing primarily on deposit rates, as lenders worldwide reassess how they manage deposits.
Deposit rates in markets such as Singapore and Malaysia have moderated in recent months, with promotional offers becoming less attractive, according to Silvio Struebi, managing partner at Simon-Kucher for Hong Kong, China and Singapore.
Instead of leading with price, banks are increasingly emphasising value propositions and deeper customer engagement, Struebi said.
“Wealth is really the core focus in the market, particularly within the affluent and private banking segments of retail banks, where ticket sizes are larger,” he said in a podcast hosted by the consultancy. “Nearly every retail bank in the region now has a dedicated strategy to attract these customers.”
Asian banks have recently stepped up their wealth management offerings. Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB) is reportedly targeting wealth management-related assets to account for 50% of its invested assets by 2026.
At Citibank Singapore, digital wealth management transactions surged 165% over the past two years after the bank overhauled its mobile app and website and introduced more than 100 new wealth-related features, a bank executive told Asian Banking & Finance earlier in 2025.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank expanded its footprint by opening new wealth management centres across the city in 2025, while DBS Private Bank in Singapore launched a tailored private asset solution for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family office clients.
In Southeast Asia, banks are also refining pricing structures and “cleaning up” deposits by tightening conditions such as early withdrawal or deposit break terms, Struebi said.
He added that optimising volume-based tiers is another frequent area of review, as many existing structures were designed years ago, with adjustments often delivering quick gains.
Asian lenders typically operate tiered offerings in privilege banking and wealth management, but these frameworks are often not optimally structured, particularly in how pricing is set across different customer segments, Struebi said.
Click here for more on Banking
