Press Release

For immediate release

Contact:
Marina Totsuka+813 4530 5602
marina.totsuka@barclays.com
Andrew Smith+813 4530 5626
andrew.x.smith@barclays.com

Precious metals most popular treasure asset forJapanese high net worth individuals: Barclays report
Tokyo, 12 June 2012;
The most popular treasure asset for Japanese high net worth individuals (HNWIs) is precious metals, with
49% of respondents surveyed currently holding this asset. This is followed by precious jewellery (36% ofrespondents) and fine art pictures & paintings (34%). Compared to their global counterparts, Japanese HNWIs
rank third in terms of the highest proportion of respondents owning precious metals, behind China (86%) andSaudi Arabia (55%). They rank second (24%) in terms of having the highest proportion of respondents
owning stamp collections, behind Singapore (25%).
Launched today, the report, Profit or Pleasure? Exploring the motivations behind treasure trends, provides anin-depth study of investment trends across the world in these ‘treasure assets’ as well as offers insight into
the financial and emotional motivations for wealthy individuals holding these particular assets. Treasureassets refer to assets such as fine art pictures and sculptures, antique furniture, precious jewellery, preciousmetals, classic automobiles and wine collections. Two thousand wealthy respondents were surveyed globally,including 100 respondents from Japan.
“Our survey also shows that close to 60% of Japanese high net worth individuals agree on the value ofdiversification. This may possibly explain why the most popular asset held is precious metals, given that this is
an asset traditionally seen as holding its value when financial markets are turbulent,” said Cedric Lizin, Head ofBusiness, Japan for the wealth and investment division of Barclays.
Japanese high net worth individuals have on average nine percent of their net worth tied up in treasure assets,
in line with the global average of around 10%. The wealthy in the UAE (18%) have the highest concentrationof their net worth in treasure assets, while those in the UK (7%), India (3%) and Qatar (2%) hold moreconservative levels. A third of the respondents surveyed globally confirmed that they were holding moretreasure types today than five years ago.
Treasure Trends
A number of different factors appear to affect the popularity of treasure asset types, from the age of theinvestor to the wider economic stability of their region. Precious jewellery is by far the most popular treasureasset type for wealthy individuals across most countries, with 70% of respondents investing in this asset,
followed by fine art (49%) and antiques (37%).
Amongst global respondents, age is an important differentiator. Fine art and antiques tend to be more
popular among older individuals, while the younger generation prefers cars, wine, precious metals andjewellery. In general, younger individuals also tend to hold a higher proportion of their total wealth in treasureassets, which experts have attributed in part to young people’s willingness to adopt higher-risk investment
strategies.
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Press Release

For immediate release

Contact:
Marina Totsuka+813 4530 5602
marina.totsuka@barclays.com
Andrew Smith+813 4530 5626
andrew.x.smith@barclays.com

Lizin comments: “Whilst the type of treasure assets people choose to invest in varies slightly from country tocountry, the growth in the popularity of treasure is consistent with a general move towards simplicity,familiarity and tangibility in investing. Investing in assets as a like-for-like alternative to traditional asset
classes should, however, be done with extreme caution as there may be high costs involved in keeping thesetreasure assets, from insurance fees to maintenance costs.”
The Endowment Effect
The report also reveals that wealthy collectors often require a very high price increase before they consider
selling on their treasure. On average, Japanese high net worth individuals seek an average of a 60% priceincrease before they are willing to consider a sale of their treasures, in line with the global average of 62%. For
treasure assets such as wine collections (67% appreciation) and precious jewellery (66% appreciation), therequired price increase is higher.
This endowment effect, whereby people expect a higher price for an item when selling it than they would bewilling to pay for it, is prevalent amongst wealthy collectors. Additionally, some types of treasure asset are
more likely to be considered priceless than others – that is, they would not part with it at any price. Just under
half of respondents (44%) globally who own precious jewellery, fine art sculptures and antique furnitureconsider their treasure to be priceless.
Emotional motivations as main drivers
Similarly to their global counterparts, the motivations for Japanese HNWIs to hold these treasure assets gobeyond investment purposes. Only 15% of treasure assets are held by Japanese HNWIs for financial
motivations. This compares to 36% of treasure assets across Asia and 19% globally.
Enjoyment of these assets (53% of treasure assets owned), the appreciation that they are part of their family
and culture (23%) and wanting to protect them for their future generations to enjoy (21%) are the primary
drivers for wealthy Japanese.
“At Barclays, we pride ourselves on having an in-depth understanding of high net worth individuals. We arepioneers in the field of behavioural finance, and have long acknowledged the importance of understanding
the emotional aspect behind financial decisions through our proprietary Financial Personality Assessment.
This report reiterates the fact that there will always be an emotional and financial component in the decision
making process. In the instance of investing in these alternative treasure assets, our study suggests that theemotional motivations are the more dominant part of an investors decision-making process.
This is why we have integrated the field of behavioural finance and our Financial Personality Assessment as
part of our investment philosophy. Through this, we can help clients make more effective investment
decisions and accordingly develop highly customised investment portfolios,” concluded Lizin.
-endNotes to editors:
Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking,we operate in over 50 countries and employ over 140,000 people.
We provide large corporate, government and institutional clients with a full spectrum of solutions to their strategic advisory, financing and risk
management needs. Our clients also benefit from access to the breadth of expertise across Barclays. We’re one of the largest financial services
providers in the world, and are also engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate banking, and wealth and investment management.
Barclays offers premier investment banking products and services to its clients through Barclays Bank PLC.
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