Wells Fargo Bank has, um, Wells Fargo-sized ambitions for its Asian asset management business. The US banking giant has a market cap of $82 billion, making it the third-largest financial institution in the US and number four in the world. It is a huge money manager back home, with a $114 billion global institutional business, assets of over $140 billion in its private banking business, and another $95 billion under management in its US mutual funds operation.
Early this year it formalized its asset management business in Hong Kong and is in the process of both advancing its name as an institutional player, as well as seeking wholesale partnerships with financial institutions in...