Canadian life insurer Manulife is aiming to double the size of its Asian asset management wealth unit within the next five years.
Michael Dommermuth, who was appointed head of wealth and asset management, Asia in February, will focus on forming distribution partnerships, creating mutual funds and hiring more agents to sell Manulife products, according to Bloomberg.
Manulife's Asian wealth management unit has about $80bn under management and Dommermuth said it's his "central mission" to tap the $20trn sitting in bank accounts across the region of 4.4 billion people.
To put the figures in context, Manulife had a total of C$691bn ($543bn) in assets under management at the end of 2014, with total invested assets coming to C$269bn. The majority of Manulife's assets are in the US (48%) and Canada (34%). Europe made up 4%, Japan 4% and Hong Kong, the rest of Asia and other countries made up the remaining 10%. Most of Manulife's Asian holdings are local currency bonds backing local currency liabilities.
In January Manulife Asset Management announced that Endre Pedersen, senior managing director, Asian fixed income, had also been named chief investment officer, fixed income, Asia (ex-Japan) (IAR, 28 January, Manulife Asset Management appoints Asian fixed income CIO).