DBS and Avaloq have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their 18-year partnership, aiming to jointly build the next generation of wealth management capabilities for clients and advisers across Asia. The expanded collaboration spans three areas: enterprise growth, co-innovation, and capability-building exchange.
The move supports DBS’s push to grow retail and wealth assets under management to SGD 1 trillion by 2030, with a specific focus on strengthening the capability and capacity of its advisers and specialists. That focus comes against a backdrop the release frames directly: demand for professional investment advice is climbing across Asia even as the industry faces a genuine shortage of skilled talent. Seven in 10 investors already have an assigned wealth adviser, while more than four in 10 without one say they would like to have one, a gap the two companies are positioning this partnership to help close through technology rather than headcount alone.
As per the agreement, DBS and Avaloq will look at deploying Avaloq’s platform more broadly across DBS’s markets and business lines, adapting it to local market needs, while jointly developing digital platforms, products, and execution capabilities. The partnership will also lean on DBS’s talent pool and Avaloq’s wealth technology expertise for skills development, potentially through learning programmes, knowledge-sharing sessions, and cross-functional exchanges.
Shee Tse Koon, Group Executive and Head of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management at DBS, tied the expanded partnership directly to what it means for frontline advisers, framing better technology as a way to free up their judgment for higher-value client work rather than replace it.
“Avaloq has been a critical enabler for our wealth management operations for the past 18 years. This latest partnership brings together DBS’ wealth and investment expertise with Avaloq’s platform and data capabilities to co-create solutions that can swiftly address the evolving needs of our customers and advisers. By deepening capabilities across the wealth continuum, we can give our advisers greater capacity for the judgment that matters and help more customers put their money to work. This is how we intend to set the pace as Asia’s wealth market grows,” Shee said.
Martin Greweldinger, Group CEO of Avaloq, framed the deal as building on nearly two decades of shared history while positioning the partnership around preparing wealth-management talent for an increasingly AI-enabled industry.
“We are excited to begin a new chapter in our partnership with DBS and build on 18 years of shared success. Together, we plan to expand into new markets, deepen coverage across business lines, co-create the next generation of wealth technology and equip tomorrow’s wealth-management talent with the skills needed for an increasingly AI-enabled industry. This shared ambition will help extend high-quality investment capabilities to a broader and more diverse client base,” Greweldinger said.
For everyday DBS wealth clients, this partnership isn’t something they’ll interact with directly. Its infrastructure and adviser tooling, not a new product to sign up for. What it’s meant to change, over time, is how much attention and expertise an adviser can bring to each client relationship, since better platform and data tools are what let one adviser serve more clients well, instead of stretching thin. And that matters because the real problem in this region isn’t a lack of interest in wealth advice. It’s that the number of people wanting it is growing faster than the number of qualified advisers who can give it.
Herald View: This isn’t a new-market land grab or a flashy tech launch. It’s two organizations renewing vows after 18 years, mostly because the real problem hasn’t gone away: too few skilled advisers chasing a growing pool of wealth, and technology on its own hasn’t fixed that. The real signal here is the “capability building exchange” part. DBS and Avaloq are not just talking about software. They’re talking about training people alongside it. In a wealth management industry increasingly worried about an adviser shortage, that’s a quieter bet than most, people and platform together, instead of platform standing in for people.