RBC WM makes senior appointments in Asia
RBC Wealth Management, part of Royal Bank of Canada has made Ignatius (Iggy) K.K. Chong head of enterprise private clients Asia, where is responsible for coverage of ultra high net worth (UHNW) clients across regional geographies and products. These are Asia’s “global families”, who typically have international ties with Canada, the US or the UK as a result of business interests, employment, property or education.
Chong was previously head of private banking, Greater China at RBC WM.
Separately, Nick Chan has joined RBC WM as head of private banking, North Asia, to lead the bank’s business and strategy in the region.
Chan has two decades of wealth management experience across Asia and was most recently deputy CEO and head of family office Asia Pacific at StormHarbour Securities. Previously, he spent 14 years at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management (PWM) in Hong Kong and Singapore, in roles including head of Southeast Asia PWM and co-head of PWM sales management Asia Pacific. Before that, he covered the UHNW segment at Goldman Sachs in Asia.
Both Chong and Chan are based in Hong Kong, reporting to Terence Chow, with roles effective from 1 December.
Three new private bankers – Franky Lee, Elroy Wong and Ellen Choi – have also joined RBC’s wealth management division in Hong Kong in recent weeks. Lee comes from Bank of Singapore, Wong from LGT (HK) and Choi joins from EFG Bank.
Including these new private banker appointments, 11 new relationship managers have moved to RBC WM in Hong Kong over the past year, including Fenny Chan, Angela Chow, Vincent Cheng, Ellis Lau, Leo Zhang and Yoon Tae-Jung.
EFG Bank taps BEA for Hong Kong role
Jessica Ng been hired as the new head of private banking, Hong Kong, effective immediately. She succeeds Richard Straus, who has decided to retire at the end of March 2022. Ng will report to Kees Stoute, chief executive officer and business head Hong Kong, EFG Bank Hong Kong Branch, and will become a member of the Asia Business Committee.
Ng is joining EFG from Bank of East Asia (BEA), where she spent 20 years in various senior positions and has served as head of private banking since 2017.
Capital Group builds leadership team in Southeast Asia
Capital Group has appointed Lisa Leong as managing director, institutional business for Southeast Asia, effective immediately. Based in Singapore, she reports to Jeik Sohn, head of client group, Singapore & Southeast Asia.
Leong will be responsible for building the strategy and relationships with institutional clients in Southeast Asia. She has 14 years of industry experience, most recently as head of institutional business, Southeast Asia, for Franklin Templeton. She began her career at EY, followed by Bank Negara Malaysia where she was a portfolio manager for fixed income and equities.
Deutsche Bank WM expands in India
Among the new hires, Rajasekar Ayyalu has joined as a director in Chennai where he will be responsible for expanding and deepening Deutsche Bank’s presence in that jurisdiction. He joins from Julius Baer where he was executive director (Investments), and before that he worked at Merrill Lynch and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Four vice-presidents – Jai Bhatia, Sanyam Sharma , Anjali Vashisth and Manish Lalwani – have joined the Delhi and Mumbai offices as relationship managers.
The appointments are among 15 hires in South Asia made this year by Deutsche Bank WM.
Amundi hires for Singapore roles
Asset manager Amundi has appointed Dennis Ng as head of distribution sales, Singapore, effective 1 November, and Marcus Liew as multi asset solutions portfolio manager, a newly created role based in Singapore effective 17 August.
With 15 years of experience in the financial industry across different markets in Asia, Ng joins from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he was an executive director, having joined the Singapore fund sales team in 2015. He previously held various roles at Standard Chartered Bank as an investment advisor and treasury specialist since 2010, as well as at DBS and Citibank.
Liew, responsible for portfolio management, research, analysis and implementation of multi-asset solutions at Amundi, was previously a portfolio manager at First Sentier Investors, where he worked for almost 8 years.
Credit Suisse signs up NRI leader
Credit Suisse has hired Bikram Sen as managing director & team leader for Credit Suisse Private Banking Non-Resident India (NRI) Market, based in Singapore.
Sen, with 20 years of banking experience in capital markets, asset management and private banking, joins after eight years at Bank of Singapore where he was the team head of global South Asia & Middle East, and also responsible for driving the NRI business in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. His early career includes spells at Kotak Mahindra, Standard Chartered and Coutts.
Savills IM hires Asia MD
Savills Investment Management (Savills IM), the international real estate investment manager, has appointed Yo-Hann Tan to the role of managing director, client capital.
Based in Singapore, Tan will report to co-head, global client capital Michael Flynn, and be responsible for developing Savills IM’s strategic capital partnerships in markets including Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
He joins from BNP Paribas Real Estate, where he was formerly CEO of its Hong Kong business, head of Apac for BNP Paribas Real Estate (incorporating Strutt and Parker) and director, BNP Paribas Real Estate Singapore. Prior to this, Tan held roles including senior positions in private law practice and with Aareal Bank in Singapore.
JPMAM’s head of investment stewardship for EMEA takes on global role
J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Yo Takatsuki as global head of investment stewardship, a newly created role.
Takatsuki, who joined the firm in February 2021, will continue to lead JPMAM’s investment stewardship efforts in EMEA, including proxy voting, corporate engagement and stewardship reporting. Effective 1 December 2021, these responsibilities will now extend to Asia Pacific and North America, with Takatsuki overseeing the global coordination of JPMAM’s regional investment stewardship practices.
Takatsuki will continue to report to Jennifer Wu, JPMAM’s global head of sustainable investing, based in London. JPMAM’s existing regional stewardship heads Felix Lam (Asia ex-Japan), Nishesh Kumar (North America), and Shizuko Ohmi (Japan) will now report to Takatsuki.
Pictet AM makes board appointment
Martin Matsui has joined the board of Pictet Asset Management Holding SA, the Swiss holding company that controls all the asset management entities in the Pictet Group, as a non-executive director with effect from 1st December 2021.
Matsui has worked in financial services for 40 years, and for the past two decades at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). While at the HKMA, his responsibilities included being the head for its external managers division, and most recently as chief strategy officer. During this past year he was advisor to the chief executive of the exchange fund investment office.
