Affluent newcomers can now access more wealth management options
Scotiabank has established a new referral arrangement with ICICI Bank Canada, the Canadian arm of India’s ICICI Bank Ltd., aimed at high-net-worth clients, particularly affluent South Asian Canadians, the companies announced Tuesday.
A report from The Canadian Press highlighted that the partnership would allow ICICI Bank Canada customers to access Scotia Wealth Management services.
ICICI Bank Canada, operating as a full-service direct bank under Canada’s Bank Act for 20 years, will maintain its existing services including banking, remittances to India and non-resident Indian services, while adding Scotiabank’s wealth management expertise to its offerings.
According to Himadar Maddipatla, ICICI Bank Canada’s chief executive, the deal gives ICICI’s clientele access to wealth management services through Scotia Wealth Management, in addition to the services the bank already offers. Maddipatla noted clients will benefit from the knowledge, experience, and scale of Scotia Wealth Management.
BNN Bloomberg reported that the arrangement reflects Scotiabank’s strategic focus on expanding its wealth management business, which delivered a 10% increase in net income for the division in fiscal 2024, earning $1.58 billion.
Jacqui Allard, Scotiabank’s group head of global wealth management, highlighted the importance of serving Canada’s diverse populations. “South Asians are obviously a very large proportion of newcomers to Canada,” Allard said. “They’re differentially business owners and entrepreneurs, generating a lot of wealth in this country. But nobody is focused on that community as a segment from a wealth-management perspective.”
Scotiabank has analyzed government statistics showing not only large immigration numbers from India but also high proportions of high-net-worth newcomers from that country—particularly those arriving under business-program and skilled-worker admission categories.
Alex Besharat, head of Canadian wealth management at Scotiabank, said the strategy emphasizes the bank’s dedication to supporting diverse entrepreneurs and business owners across Canada.
The partnership represents part of Scotiabank’s broader strategic goal to increase wealth management earnings at a compound annual growth rate of 10% over five years, as outlined by CEO Scott Thomson in late 2023.
For Scotiabank, wealth management represents an attractive business segment due to its “high-return-on-equity, low-capital-intensive” nature, which Allard described as “important from an earnings diversification perspective.”
This isn’t ICICI Bank’s first partnership with a major Canadian financial institution. The Indian bank previously established an arrangement with Royal Bank of Canada in 2022 to refer newcomer clients, facilitating bank account openings for new arrivals.
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