But Marcel Kreis, head of Asia-Pacific private banking for the Swiss bank, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Singapore that revenues and margins could be hit in the near-term as clients move away from risky assets and boost cash holdings amid extreme market volatility. Higher-risk investment products offer banks more lucrative fees.

'We have fundamentally no plans to change the strategy that we have elaborated on a number of occasions, which is to grow the footprint here in Asia,' Marcel Kreis, head of Asia-Pacific for the Swiss bank, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit.

He said the strategy includes growing the offshore booking centres in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as building onshore private banking centres in places such as Australia, Indonesia and Japan.

Mr Kreis said he expects the private banking team in Asia could grow to between 650 and 800 people in three years from 440 at the end of June, and aims to grow assets by 25 per cent a year.

The bank's Asia-Pacific division held 64 billion Swiss franc (S$83.4 billion) of assets at the end of June. -- THOMSON REUTERS