“Chen will continue to oversee the development and execution of the firm’s long term business strategy in Taiwan,” a spokesman told FSA.
He replaces Christine Jih, who has decided to retire from the asset management industry, according to a media release.
Chen has 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and was most recently Taiwan head of Fidelity. Previously, he worked in the consumer banking divisions of of Citi, Standard Chartered Bank and GE Money.
At BNPP AM, Chen reports to Singapore-based Christian Bucaro, co-head of distribution in Asia-Pacific, for matters relating to the commercial development of Taiwan and functionally to Ligia Torres, chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Chen also joins the organisation’s Asia-Pacific regional leadership team.
In addition to managing daily operations, he is responsible for managing the firm’s relationships with its clients.
In the statement, Torres said Chen “brings a unique combination of Taiwan’s financial sector experience and strong client relationships across the wholesale channel. His insights into the dimensions of building an onshore Taiwan presence will prove invaluable as we continue to leverage our global sustainable and investment solutions expertise in executing local strategies”.
BNPP AM Taiwan acts as master agent of the groups’ flagship funds in Taiwan, the spokesman told FSA.
He added that the firm has 40 sub-funds registered in Taiwan, which are promoted to 50 clients.
One sector Chen is likely focus on is fixed income. Investors in Taiwan poured NT$528.4bn ($17bn) into Taiwan-domiciled fixed income funds in the first six months of this year, according to Morningstar.
Fixed income funds now outpace other asset classes in terms of market share by a huge gap and account for 42.3% of the total assets in locally-domiciled funds, which compares to just 28% in November last year.
The firm, under its Parvest brand name, offers eight fixed income funds in Taiwan, according to FE Analytics data.
