Why you Singaporeans have no influence over Anton Casey's employer

*Disclaimer: I wrote and published this article before Anton Casey parted ways with Crossinvest on the 25th January. I had not anticipate the story to have developed the way it has thus far, but I am not going to edit this article as it was a reflection of the way things stood as of the 21st January (4 days ago) and evidently, things have evolved since. This article involved a fairly general discussion about the wealth management industry in Singapore anyway, so many of the points are totally valid even if Casey did eventually part ways with Crossinvest.

OK I thought I'd do a quick follow up to the Anton Casey case. Yes his remarks have been ill-judged at best, after all, there's really little to be gained by being the center of a hate campaign in Singapore. Whatever little thrill he may have gained by spouting all those snide remarks on social media cannot justify the kind of uncertainty he is facing now as this story drags on. This is another classic case of 得不偿失 - "the gains do not make up for the losses". Surely he should have known better. (Hindsight is 2020, I'm sure.)

I would like to deal with one issue though, many Singaporeans on social media have assumed wrongly that by publicly raising the fact that he works for Crossinvest - a wealth management specialist in Singapore, his employers would somehow be embarrassed by being associated with him and this story, thus forcing him to be fired. That is not going to happen at all. Look, I have worked in Singapore in 2011 in the wealth management industry and know quite a lot about this industry, so let me explain some basic facts for my readers about wealth management in Singapore.

Do you understand the world of wealth management in Singapore?

There is a substantial expatriate community in Singapore - now we're talking about rich white expatriates here, rather than Bangladeshi construction workers or Filipino domestic maids. We're talking about the rich white expatriates who have very well paid jobs, live in beautiful condominiums, send their kids to international schools and pretty much live in their own little expatriate bubble, making virtually no contact with any local Singaporeans and have no Singaporean friends. Okay, not all expatriates are like that - but a substantial number are.

There are quite a number of wealth management companies in Singapore which specifically target white expatriates in Singapore: these companies are staffed only by white expatriates and every single one of their clients are white. Now you may wonder, why can't a rich white expatriate in Singapore use the private banking services of a local Singaporean banker? Don't they trust a local Singaporean banker? Why do they need to deal with banker from their own country?

Who do you trust with your money?

You know, I don't even have the perfect answer to that question. This is not just a Singaporean situation, but you can go to anywhere in Asia and there will be such wealth management companies run by white bankers in Asia exclusively for white expatriates in Asia. In many cases, a white expatriate in Asia may wish to return to his country of origin after some years - so he would rather deal with someone who is familiar with the pension planning systems in the country where he plans to retire. So a Singaporean banker may know all about the CPF rules but be clueless about structuring a British pension in a tax-efficient manner.  And then there's also the more basic issue of trust and customer service, the white expatriates still have a trust issue when it comes to whom they hand their money over to manage.

It was a bizarre experience for me in 2011 when I dealt with this industry- back then, I was working for a Luxembourg based fund manager and I was promoting their funds to wealth managers who serve expatriates (such as Crossinvest) across Asia. I often found myself in meetings where I was the only Asian person in the room, heck, make that the only Asian person in the office. Sometimes there may be a secretary or office manager who was Asian, but the directors, senior managers and anyone dealing with the white clients were always white. Somehow, because I had a British passport and a British accent and I worked for a European company, I was able to move around in those circles and was treated like an expatriate. (I work for a different company these days and am based back in London in 2014.)

Oh yes, I had good times in Singapore in 2011.

So - you need to understand just how small and very niche this industry is. Anton Casey is in Singapore to serve white expatriates, not Asians.  As a senior wealth manager, he would probably have a very modest  number of clients - all of whom are probably rich, white, British expatriates working in Singapore. Casey's job would simply revolve around servicing these clients - taking care of their pensions, tax planning needs, dealing with various issues like setting up trust funds for their children, finding the best investment opportunities and maybe even dealing with issues like inheritance planning. He doesn't need many clients as each client would pay a lot for his service and that is why he is so rich. He needs to be pretty good at his job, otherwise he won't be where he is today.

At this point, someone like my dad would quickly point out to me that there are many rich Singaporeans who need wealth management services too and these Angmoh bankers are missing out by ignoring the local Singaporean market. Guess what? They don't care - there are local Asian wealth managers serving the rich local Singaporeans and managing their wealth. These white wealth managers like Anton Casey are quite happy to deal only with white expatriates and that's just the way the wealth management market in Singapore is. If you're a rich Asian, you'll get an Asian wealth manager. If you're a rich white expatriate, you'll turn to someone like Anton Casey. That's just the way things are and that is why Anton Casey has a very well paid job in Singapore.

Oh I have fond memories of working in Singapore back in 2011...

Wealth management companies like Crossinvest serve a very small, very niche market and they are not like some company selling a product like chocolate biscuits, toothpaste or tissue paper where they need as many people as possible to buy their products. The difference is that a company selling biscuits or toothpaste has millions of customers - each spending a very small amount of money; whilst a company like Crossinvest has a very small number of customers - each spending a huge amount of money. The kind of PR/marketing needs for that biscuit or toothpaste company is quite different from Crossinvest. So whilst the very people who Casey has offended are Singaporeans and even if every single Singaporean in Singapore is angry with Casey - guess what? It doesn't matter one bit because every single one of his clients are British expats, none of them are local. His clients may not approve of some of his snide comments which have caused offence, but at the end of the day, they are probably more interested in the quality of his service rather than what he may have said on social media, especially since they are not personally offended by what he has said.

Gosh, this does remind me of a similar case I talked about last year. The conclusion is the same: you Singaporeans can bitch all you want on social media about an expatriate you don't like, but at the end of the day, you have no influence whatsoever on this guy's employers. You are not going to put any pressure on his employers to sack the guy because of the nature of this company's client base. The key word is niche - which is the opposite of mass market. It's economics 101 people. I remember rolling my eyes last year when I wrote about the Timetric case because none of the Singaporeans who bitched about that company even paused for a moment to realize just how extremely niche their products are. By the same token, Crossinvest is an extremely niche company in the financial services sector.

Some businesses cater only for a niche market and do very well.

So there you go, that's my short lecture on the nature of wealth management for white expatriates in Singapore for you. It's the same thing that goes on in other Asian cities like Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. So for all the Singaporeans who are saying, "we don't need people like Anton Casey in Singapore, we have local Singaporean bankers". Guess what? You Singaporeans may not need him or want his services, but it is the white expats in Singapore who do and that's why he has a good job and earns so much.

And such is life. If you're buay song with life, feel free to rant by leaving a comment below. Thank you!
Update, part 3: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/anton-caseys-apology-and-responsefollow.html
Part 4: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/lmfao-singaporean-petitions-anton.html
Part 5: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-sedition-act-and-anton-casey.html
Part 6: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-british-reaction-to-anton-casey.html
Part 7: http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/a-very-hollow-victory-for-singaporeans.html