Singapore’s largest lender DBS Bank has launched a multi-family office that leverages the city state’s variable capital company or VCC structure to attract wealthy global clients.
The bank says the new DBS Multi Family Office Foundry VCC offers an alternative option for affluent families to manage their wealth in Singapore without having to set up their own family office.
The lender says this is the first bank-backed multi-family office in the world that leverages the VCC structure.
“Through DBS MFO, clients will be able to access a full suite of investment services – from investment management, trade execution, to custody solutions – via a single integrated platform,” the bank says in a statement on June 13.
Lee Woon Shiu, DBS Bank’s group head of wealth planning, family office and insurance solutions, describes it as “another milestone in the evolution of our family office proposition”.
According to Lee, the offering has attracted “keen interest from global ultra-high net-worth families” and their advisers, “who see tremendous value in leveraging the VCC as a unique wealth structuring solution”.
The VCC structure gives fund managers greater flexibility in share issuance or redemptions and dividend payments. Asset managers are also able to incorporate multiple funds into a single VCC, unlike in the regular structure where each fund has to be registered into one account.
Singapore introduced the VCC in 2020 to bolster the city state’s status as a regional fund distribution hub.
DBS Bank had S$686 billion (US$507 billion) of assets as of end-2022.
