People moves
Manulife Asset Management has appointed Chan Hock Fai as head of equities for Singapore. He will be responsible for leading all of the Singapore-based equity strategies and have oversight of the local team of equities investment professionals. Before joining Manulife AM, was a Singapore-based director of investment at Amundi Asset Management, where he managed Singapore, Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) and global multi-asset portfolios…
Franklin Templeton Investments has appointed Terence Bong as Singapore-based head of wholesale for Southeast Asia. He will be responsible for the firm’s retail sales and private banking efforts for the Southeast Asian region and will also be responsible for business development and marketing of investment products and strategies. Before joining Franklin Templeton, he was Nikko Asset Management’s head of intermediary business development for Asia. He will report to Dora Seow, who has taken on a new role this week as head of distribution, institutional and wholesale business for Southeast Asia. Previously, Seow was the firm’s head of institutional business for Southeast Asia…
Franklin Real Asset Advisors (FRAA), a dedicated investment management platform within Franklin Templeton specialising in global real estate and infrastructure, has appointed Chong Woon Pin as its managing director responsible for the Asia-Pacific. Chong will lead FRAA’s Asia-Pacific investment team in research, analysis and transaction of private real estate investment opportunities in the region and define market insights and investment themes. He will also be responsible for the business development and marketing of real estate investment products and strategies, with a focus on Asian markets. Before his new role, he was a managing director at Savant Global Capital, a specialist investment and asset management firm…
Switzerland-headquartered cryptocurrency start-up Monaco, which has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, has hired Sean Rach as its chief marketing officer. He will be responsible for promoting the firm’s brand and building its credibility with key stakeholders. Before Monaco, he was previously Prudential Corporation Asia’s chief marketing officer…
ETFs
State Street Global Advisors’ Tracker fund of Hong Kong has breached the HK$100bn ($13bn) mark for the first time this week. It is the only exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Hong Kong to have reached this size and is also the largest equity ETF in the Asia ex-Japan region, according to the firm. “In line with global trends, we believe that demand for ETFs among Asian investors will continue to grow and ETFs will play a number of roles in their portfolios,” June Wong, senior managing director and head of Asia ex-Japan at SSGA, said in a statement…
Blackrock’s iShares business saw record new flows of $246bn in 2017. AUM of iShares closed the year at $1.754trn, including $1.33trn in equities and $427bn in fixed income and commodities. US individual investors and financial advisors drove record growth in iShares in the US, with net inflows of $201bn. iShares European Ucits saw organic growth of 15% with a record $41bn of net inflows, mainly driven by investors across Europe, Asia and Latin America…
Regulation
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has launched the Enhanced Competency Framework on Retail Wealth Management (ECF-RWM) this week. The framework is a collaborative effort of the HKMA, the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers and the banking sector in establishing a set of common and transparent competency standards for raising and maintaining the professional competence of practitioners of retail wealth management functions…
