UBP appoints head of South Asia wealth planning
Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) has hired Robert Phua as head of wealth planning, South Asia, effective 3 January 2022. Phua reports to Ranjit Khanna, head of South Asia and Singapore branch chief executive, and to Bertrand Binggeli, group co-head of wealth planning.
Based in Singapore, Phua’s focus will be on growing UBP’s wealth planning business in South Asia with a special focus on family offices in the region.
He has two decades of industry experience and joins UBP from Julius Baer, where he provided wealth planning advisory services to the bank’s clients in Asia including the structuring and setting up of trusts, family offices, fund entities and non-profit entities. Prior to that, Phua headed the private trust, securities & fiduciary services for DBS Bank and worked as a legal counsel in various compnaies.
Morningstar names research head
Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research, has appointed Wing Chan as head of manager research, Europe and Asia-Pacific, effective January 1, 2022.
Chan was most recently director of manager research practice, EMEA & Asia, at Morningstar Investment Management Asia Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar. He continues to be based in Hong Kong.
In this new role, Chan overseas Morningstar’s European and Asia-Pacific manager research analyst teams, including the regional practices in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He continues to oversee the cross-border practice, which includes analyst teams in continental Europe and Asia.
Chan joined Morningstar in 2013 and previously held investment roles within the asset and wealth management industry.
Morningstar has approximately 147 manager research analysts worldwide who cover more than 4,000 funds.
HSBC AM poaches from State Street
HSBC Asset Management (HSBC AM) has hired Cheong Mun Fai as senior vice president, ETF & indexing business development, effective 1 December. Based in Singapore, Cheong reports to Jacqueline Pang, head of ETF and indexing sales, Asia Pacific.
In his new role, Cheong is responsible for driving the growth and distribution of HSBC and Hang Seng ETF and Indexing business, covering various segments ranging from insurance companies, asset managers, pension, private banks and financial intermediaries.
Prior to joining HSBC AM, he was vice president at State Street Global Advisors and was responsible for leading the SPDR ETF sales effort across the institutional and intermediary channels in Singapore. Before that, Cheong was a discretionary portfolio manager at CTBC Private Bank where he built portfolios for high net worth investors.
Previously, he was a client portfolio manager for Asian equities at Eastspring Investments. In the early part of his career, Cheong joined Mercer Investment Consulting where he advised institutional investors on their investment programmes including asset allocation policy and external manager selection process.
Citi appoints Vietnam country officer
Ramachandran A.S. has been named country officer (CCO) for Citi Vietnam, after relocating to Ho Chi Minh City in September and receiving approval from the State Bank of Vietnam for his new role in December.
Ramachandran has worked for Citi for 27 years, and was previously the London-based global emerging markets coverage head for the bank’s global subsidiaries group. Before that, he led regional relationship coverage in Singapore for the bank’s Apac multinational clients.
Citi first set up in Vietnam presence 1994 and now has two branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
UBS boosts sustainable team in Apac
The two appointments to newly created roles both started this year and report to Tasos Zavitsanakis, head of sustainable finance office, Greater China, UBS.
Esther Tsang joins as ESG corporate strategy lead, Apac sustainable finance office. Previously, she was an ESG analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, where her research focused on identifying and analysing current and future Asia ESG trends, including market and regulations update, climate change, carbon emissions and corporate governance and linking performance to financial value.
Prior to joining Bloomberg, Tsang worked as an ESG consulting manager at Ernst & Young, providing ESG strategy and risk consulting services for financial institutions, companies and governments. She started her career at Sustainalytics as an ESG analyst, focusing on real estate and TMT.
Beatrice Faessler joins as ESG project manager, Apac sustainable finance office. She was previously a cross asset offering specialist for ultra high net worth and global family office clients at UBS in Apac.
Before moving to Hong Kong Faessler worked as a business strategist for UBS in Zurich, where she built up the wealth management’s sustainable investing research and offering capabilities, designed target operating models and enhanced client analytics and sales related business processes. She started her career at the permanent mission of Spain to the United Nations as an advisor in the area of disarmament and international security.
Apollo taps HSBC for Apac role
In connection with the agreement to acquire Griffin Capital late last year, Apollo has hired Edward Moon as head of Asia Pacific global wealth.
Moon will join Apollo in January 2022 and be based in Hong Kong. With 20 years of financial industry experience across alternatives, investment management and investment banking, he was previously managing director and regional head of alternatives, Asia for HSBC Private Bank.
Two of Apollo’s main strategic growth areas are its global wealth business, which is focused on distribution of alternative solutions to individual investors and their wealth advisors, as well as expansion in Asia Pacific, according to the firm.
