DBS' Singapore private bankers are probably better than Goldman Sachs'

This time last year, there was one very best private bank in the world: DBS. Now, it seems that another firm might have seized that crown.

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Data from market intelligence provider Tricumen analyzed the productivity of private banking teams, measured in terms of average operating revenue generated by each front office full-time employee. 

While DBS still had some of the best private bankers in the world in the first half of 2024, Tricumen found that Goldman Sachs’ private bankers were on average more productive. The difference between the two was small: DBS’s private bankers were just under two standard deviations more efficient than the peer-group average, while Goldman’s were around two and a half standard deviations more efficient.

Much like last year, however, there was one way in which DBS was utterly dominant: in its pre-tax profit margin, which was 2.5 standard deviations higher than the peer-group average. Also like last year, JPMorgan was its closest rival, although still very far away from DBS’ level of profitability.

Tricumen said the most efficient use of assets was by RBC, which was almost three whole standard deviations above the peer group average for operating revenue per dollar of assets under management.

The charts below show relative performance, measured by the metric in the title. Banks are compared relative to a group average, in standard deviations from that average. The dashed circle indicates the average. Each dash on the lines emanating from the center indicate half a standard deviation from the average. The further from the center, the better.

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