BCG - The Boston Consulting Group

Situation

Our client is a large European asset manager with global operations. As part of a strategy exercise aimed at determining its priorities in Asia over the coming three years, the company identified Taiwan as an important market on which to focus. Because Taiwan represents the third-largest wealth pool in Asia, many foreign asset managers who do not have a presence there are trying to formulate entry strategies. Although Taiwan is an attractive market, local regulations require potential foreign entrants to plan carefully.

Approach

Our approach was, first, to study all the applicable regulations to understand how these would affect the various options available to our client. Next, we thoroughly analyzed what the competition had done and outlined a few broad models for our client to consider. One critical factor to address was the fact that a foreign entrant had to secure a “master agent” to represent it in front of the regulator and potential distributors—and that master agent could represent several foreign players simultaneously. As a new entrant, our client would need to select its representative carefully. Being well positioned in the master agent’s portfolio of foreign players would be key to gaining optimal access to essential gatekeepers.

Impact and value created

After presenting the various options to our client, we obtained the go-ahead to short-list a few suitable master agents for consideration. By filtering the pool of potential agents based on criteria agreed upon by the client, our team was able to present a shortlist of 10 agents that were qualified for exploratory discussions. In the end, the in-depth detail and concrete recommendations provided by BCG allowed the client to make its choice quickly, and with confidence.

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