This publication brings news of latest moves and appointments in the Asia-Pacific wealth management industry.

ABN AMRO’s private bank has appointed former ANZ senior executive Gracelyn Ho as chief commercial officer for Asia and the Middle East, effective from 1 February. In a separate development, the Netherlands-headquartered bank opened a branch in Shanghai to support corporate clients.

Ho’s role covers strategy, business development as well as marketing and communications. She previously was head of wealth solutions for Asia at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, overseeing the bank's various wealth solution segments in Asia. Before joining ANZ, she was at Morgan Stanley for 10 years, where in her last role she was head of capital markets, private wealth management for Asia.

The previous chief commercial officer at the bank was Hans Peter Borgh, who left to take up a role at Banque Internationale a Luxembourg, a spokesperson for ABN AMRO told this publication.

She began her career at Standard Chartered Bank and worked in capital markets and commercial roles in global financial institutions in Asia, including UBS and ABN AMRO. Ho holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University of Singapore.

This publication is seeking to clarify if Ho’s role is a new one at the bank.

Also yesterday, the bank said it is opening a branch in Shanghai that will focus on supporting its corporate clients in the region. ABN AMRO has been present in Shanghai with a representative office since April 2012, and has received all necessary approvals from regulators for the representative office to become a branch.