From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Janus Henderson’s head of pan-Asia Rob Adams will be joining Australia-based Perpetual as its new managing director and CEO in September. Adams will replace Geoff Lloyd, who will step down on 30 June, while remaining available to the company for the purposes of leadership transition. Adams first joined Henderson in 2012, before its merger with Janus Capital, to establish and build an Australian business and then oversee its operations across Asia. Following the merger between Janus and Henderson, its Pan-Asia businesses now manage nearly $80bn, with the Australian business representing half of the total…
Credit Suisse Asset Management will be transferring the management of its Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Prestige Equity Fund, which invests in luxury brands, to Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) on 26 June. Its fund manager, Juan Mendoza, who is also the firm’s head of Asia equities, will also be transferring to LOIM…
Kuala Lumpur-based RHB has appointed Omar Siddiq as head of group wholesale banking, effective 1 June. He will report to Khairussaleh Ramli, group managing director, and will lead the business strategy for wholesale banking, which covers corporate banking, investment banking, treasury and global markets, client coverage, asset management and private equity. He has 20 years of experience in the areas of finance and investment banking and previously held key roles in a global accounting firm and a Malaysian investment bank…
A chance to see Trump?
A branch of China Construction Bank offered its high net worth clients a chance to dine with US President Donald Trump for $150,000, according to a Bloomberg report. However, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign said it had no knowledge of the offer and has complained to the US Department of Justice…
High net worth clients
Investment advisory firm Crossbridge Capital has expanded its robo-adviser platform, “Connect”, to target accredited private client investors in Singapore. The expanded platform, “Connect Prime”, will bring private banking level products to private client investors, with fee structures lower than those typically charged by priority banking services and private banks. The minimum account size for the prime account is S$500,000 ($372,411), which is significantly below the S$3m-S$5m required by most private banks…
Women globally are becoming billionaires at a faster rate than men, according to Wealth-X’s billionaires report. Last year, the number of females grew 18% to 321, which compares to the 14.5% (2,433 billionaires in total) increase in the number of male billionaires. Now, women represent 11.7% of the world’s population of billionaires…
MSCI China inclusion
CSOP Asset Management highlighted differences between the MSCI China A Inclusion Index and the CSI 300 Index. It said that compared to CSI 300, MSCI A Inclusion is significantly overweight consumer staples and underweight consumer discretionary. The Hong Kong Stock Connect’s northbound inflow went mostly to consumer staples while consumer discretionary saw little inflow or even outflow in the last one- and three-month period. In addition, compared to CSI 300, constituents of the MSCI China A Inclusion Index are most likely to maintain their liquidity during a market crash…
Regulation
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) highlighted in its compliance bulletin concerns over licensing applications from individuals. The bulletin featured case studies that illustrate the SFC’s regulatory focus and areas of concern, which could result in the refusal of licensing applications and even criminal prosecution. These include failure to meet the regulator’s fitness requirements or to provide complete, true and accurate information to the SFC. “Providing false or misleading information to the SFC may have criminal consequences,” the regulator noted…
Singapore’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Industry Partnership (ACIP) has recommended a set of best practices for financial institutions to guard against trade-based money laundering and the misuse of company structures for illicit purposes. The best practices papers, which are available on the website of the Association of Banks in Singapore, highlight the “red flag” customer behaviours or transaction patterns that financial firms can look out for to detect illicit financial activities. Singapore Police’s Commercial Affairs Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore encourage all relevant firms to adopt the red flag indicators and recommend measures to strengthen resilience against money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks…
Fintech
Singapore’s MAS and the Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam have signed a fintech cooperation agreement to foster innovation in financial services between Singapore and Brunei. The agreement will facilitate the sharing of information on emerging fintech trends and developments and promote joint innovation projects between boht countries. Both regulators will also work together to enhance the retail payment ecosystem between the two jurisdictions…
