This comes as the FIM industry undergoes long-term structural change to meet evolving needs of clients.

Singapore, 2 March 2026 – Financial Intermediaries (FIMs), also known as independent asset managers, are looking to explore new markets and form strategic partnerships in 2026. This is according to a survey by Bank of Singapore, which gathered perspectives from 90 FIMs senior leaders and client-facing professionals across Singapore, Greater China and Dubai. The survey was carried out between November 2025 and January 2026.

FIMs serve high net-worth individuals, family offices and institutional investors, and are gaining traction in Asia, driven by a new generation of clients who value autonomy, transparency, and tailored advice. The FIMs segment is one of the fastest growing segments in Bank of Singapore. Assets under management for the Bank’s FIM clients increased by more than 30% in 2025.

Slightly over half of the survey’s respondents said they will be exploring new markets and forming strategic partnerships. This drive to expand geographically can help them better support clients as they are increasingly showing interest in financial hubs such as Dubai, and are more often interested in holding assets across multiple jurisdictions.

FIMs are taking other immediate steps to reshape their business strategies as the industry undergoes long-term structural change. Clients are becoming more global and digitally savvy, and younger clients are also entering the wealth space.

Improving customer experience and engagement was ranked the top priority by 63% of the respondents. Areas that they could invest further in to address this include digitalising onboarding, enhancing portfolio reporting across asset classes, improving service turnaround times and giving advisors more timely insights to support client conversations.

Recognising technology as a key to future competitiveness, another main focus for FIMs is to accelerate the adoption of AI, digital transformation and automation (46%).

Mr Andrea Ciaccio, Head of Wealth Management Asia at Azimut Group, one of the leading FIMs in Asia and Europe, said, “As a global institution serving clients across 20 countries, we leverage advanced digital platforms and automation across our regional hubs to deliver multi-asset investment solutions across public and private markets, all supported by a unified custody and multi-booking infrastructure. Through technology-driven collaboration and data-enabled insights, we aim to provide both broad and tailor-made products efficiently to meet diverse client needs.”

Fixed income expected to be in strong demand

A third of the survey’s respondents said they expect fixed income solutions to see the biggest growth in demand among clients, reflecting a more defensive stance as clients seek to lock in yields ahead of anticipated interest-rate declines. Other investments expected to see growth in demand are alternative investments (25%) and ETFs (23%) which offer portfolio diversification and resilience; these can provide exposure to gold, including through gold ETFs, derivatives, and mutual funds.

The more cautious investment posture comes against a backdrop of persistent uncertainty over the last few years. This has driven respondents to take a wait and-see approach, with 43% remaining neutral about the global economy. A sizeable group of about 20% were either pessimistic or very pessimistic. Geopolitical tension was the main factor weighing down sentiment, with 44% of respondents citing it as the biggest macroeconomic risk for 2026, outweighing concerns about slowing global growth (19%).

Mr Lim Leong Guan (林良源), Global Head of Financial Intermediaries, Family Office and Wealth Advisory, Bank of Singapore (金融机构业务、家族办公室及 财富咨询部环球总监, 新加坡银行) said, “FIMs today know and understand the immense challenge that they face on two fronts – helping clients shift their portfolios amid the geopolitical environment and fast-changing investment environment due to technology innovations and also demographics; as well as the necessity to build scale and diversification in their businesses. It is heartening to see that they are taking concrete steps to meet those challenges.”