HSBC has appointed Sharon Oh as the chief operating office (COO) of HSBC Private Bank in Asia-Pacific, effective on 20 May, according to a statement from the bank.
Oh will lead the regional COO teams to work on several key transformation initiatives in 2020 and 2021, including a new core banking platform and enhancement of digital offerings, the statement noted.
She replaces Gaurav Rao, who recently relocated to London to take up a new role with the bank, the statement said.
Oh will report to Siew Meng Tan, regional head, and Anil Venuturupalli, global COO.
She joined HSBC from JP Morgan’s private banking unit, where she was chief of staff in the global institutional client segment, based in London.
Prior to that, she was based in Hong Kong, serving as the COO for JP Morgan private bank in Asia-Pacific and was previously the COO for Credit Suisse in North Asia, the statement noted.
Last month, after taking a huge hit on profit, the bank said it would merge its wealth operations into one unit, in attempt to cut cost and improve efficiency. The new unit aims to combine retail banking, wealth management and global private banking. Greg Hingston was appointed as regional head of the new wealth and personal banking unit in Asia-Pacific.
In February, HSBC reported a $7.3bn drop in annual profit and pledged to cut 35,000 jobs or 15% of its global workforce over three years.
Despite the downbeat annual results in 2019, the bank insists initial recruitment plans for its wealth teams in Asia are unaffected.
