From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Capital Group has made several appointments to bolster its distribution capabilities in Asia. As reported earlier by FSA Spy, the firm said that it has hired ex-M&G’s Jeik Sohn as managing director for financial intermediaries for Asia. Reporting to him is Kit Toh, formerly from JP Morgan Asset Management, who has been appointed as managing director for financial intermediaries for Southeast Asia. Capital Group has also appointed Emerald Yau as investment director and will be working closely with the investment and distribution teams to promote the firm’s equity strategies to financial intermediaries and institutional clients…
Standard Chartered Private Bank has made three appointments for its global South Asian Community (GSAC) team. It has named Ravi Ramakrishnan as managing director and market head for GSAC, while it has expanded the frontline team with the appointments of Sajith Menon and Benedict John as directors and relationship managers for GSAC. Before Standard Chartered, Ramakrishnan was DBS Private Banking’s managing director and market head for the Middle East and Africa, while both Menon and John were both directors for private banking at Bank of Singapore. The appointment comes at a time when the global wealth management market for high net worth non-resident Indians – the majority of Standard Chartered Private Bank’s clients – is estimated to exceed $1trn by 2020…
Business moves
Principal Financial Group now fully owns Principal PNB Asset Management Company, after completing a full share buy-back of Punjab National Bank’s shares of the India-based joint venture company. Pending regulatory approval, the firm will be renamed as Principal Asset Management Company in India…
Enforcement
The Securities and Futures Commission has banned Fonia Kwok from re-entering the industry for 12 months following her conviction for unlicensed asset management. The Eastern Magistrates’ Court found that between 2009 and 2015, Kwok, who was the sole proprietor of Finamics Capital Management, carried on a business in asset management without a SFC licence. The clients who Kwok solicited for Finamics agreed to pay Finamics a monthly commission of around 40%-50% of the net profit generated from its management of their investment portfolio. Nine clients, who agreed to let Finamics manage their portfolios, invested a combined HK$7.5m ($960,000) and suffered total losses of around HK$2.5m…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued a 12-year prohibition against Lee Chang Yeh from taking part in the management, acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital markets services firm for fraudulent and dishonest conduct. Lee was a representative from CIMB Bank in Singapore from 2013-2014 and was employed at UOB from 2005-2010. The MAS found out that while at UOB, Lee set up a company to invest in shares and foreign-exchange on behalf of other investors, without holding a capital markets services licence, and later left UOB to manage his company full time. From 2009-2013, Lee carried out his fund management business and misappropriated approximately S$520,000 ($380,000) from the monies entrusted to him by clients whom he had served whilst with UOB…
Investor confidence
Investor confidence among institutional investors has declined globally, according to State Street Global Exchange’s Investor Confidence Index (ICI). The global ICI Index, which measures investor confidence or risk appetite of institutional investors, decreased to 94.3 in August from 101.7 in July. Asia-based investors appear to be most confident, with an ICI reading of 102.6 (from 103.5), compared to Europe (99.5 from 91.4) and North America (92.5 from 103.1). A reading of 100 is neutral, in which investors are neither increasing nor decreasing their long-term allocations to risky assets…
Fintech
The MAS and the Dubai Financial Services Authority have signed a fintech agreement that allows referrals of innovative businesses between the two authorities. Both authorities have also agreed to work on joint innovation projects on the application of key technologies such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain and distributed ledgers, big data and application programming interfaces (APIs)…
