Banks see profits in India's millionaires club

By Rina Chandran

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's millionaires club is expanding as the economy explodes, offering a tantalizing opportunity to wealth management institutions seeking to help these newly minted tycoons invest their money.

But wealth managers seeking to profit from India's new crop of millionaires, who have made their fortunes in software, telecommunications, oil refining and property, must first win over suspicious clients who are notoriously coy about their wealth and have fixed ideas about their investment portfolios.

"The first question you hear is: 'Who told you I have money?'," said Sonu Bhasin, head of Axis Bank's wealth management arm, whose team of 75 relies on referrals for clients.

"Being a private banking client is not seen as a status symbol to flaunt. They don't want to talk about it with friends and they want absolute discretion from us," she said.

Economic growth which has averaged 8.6 percent for four years and a record-setting stock market have boosted the number of Indians with more than $1 million to invest by nearly 21 percent in 2006 to 100,015, the Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth report showed.

But even that is a gross underestimate, bankers say.

"There's probably that many millionaires in south Mumbai alone," Shailendra Bhandari, managing director, Centurion Bank of Punjab, said tongue-in-cheek, referring to the financial hub's well-heeled district.

Global banks, including Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, UBS, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Societe Generale have been expanding their wealth management services in India.