By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Banks are launching investment products for the super rich. These products, which often have a minimum required investment amount, are excluding ordinary investors as they are sold through private banking (PB) centers at banks.

A number of local banks, for example, are selling ``Deutsche DWS Wine Growth Real Asset Fund.'' Launched by the Deutsche Investment Trust Management, it is the first public fund here investing in wine as real assets. There have been a number of wine funds, but these funds invested in wine businesses, not bottles of wine.

The fund investing in premium wines produced in France's Bordeaux, Bourgogne and Rhone Valley regions drew attention from people in Seoul, which is seeing the wine dilettante population growing.

However, many of those who headed to banks to subscribe were turned away. The fund, which requires a subscription period of 3.5 years, is sold at PB centers only. Though each bank sets different criterion, one must have some hundreds of millions of won to be a PB customer. Banks said they sell these funds at PB centers only as these products are often too complicated for ordinary clerks to fully understand.

They also require subscribers to invest at least 10 million won in the fund, some banks have set the minimum requirement even higher.

Some overseas equity funds are initially designed for PB customers. ``KB Vietnam Focus" fund, for example, was originally sold at PB centers only. The popularity of the Vietnamese stock market last year encouraged the firm to launch a similar fund that incorporates ordinary, small-sum investors.

PB centers often introduce super rich customers to private equity funds. These funds, composed of a small number of investors, often less than 30, invest in a variety of assets. Local banks are soon to launch private equity funds investing in overseas real estates. The super rich customers are eyeing real estate in the United States, whose price plunged following the subprime mortgage crisis.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr