The private bank has made two high-ranking appointments focused on Indonesia, part of a restructure of its teams dealing with the country.

HSBC Private Bank has created a new team structure for the Indonesia market, forming two groups led by market heads Ingrid Widjaja and Lim Chee Kong.

The UK/Hong Kong-listed banking group said both market heads are responsible for new business development and executing its strategy in the Indonesia market. They both report to Sandeep Sharma, head of global private banking, South East Asia, the bank said in a statement yesterday. The statement confirms information sent to this publication from other sources.

Widjaja continues to manage the existing team, and Chee Kong will head the newly created team. Widjaja was promoted to market head for Indonesia in November 2016, having been with HSBC private bank for almost 18 years. As for Chee Kong, prior to joining HSBC, he was country team head, Indonesia at UBS Wealth Management, Singapore. 

Separately, David Ng and Chay Hong Leng have also been appointed as desk heads for Indonesia. They will report to Widjaja and Chee Kong respectively. The desk heads are responsible for managing and providing guidance to relationship managers in cultivating and deepening client relationships. Ng was previously head of ultra-high net worth investment counselling for Southeast Asia at HSBC Private Bank before taking on the new role as desk head for Indonesia. 

Hong Leng joins from UBS Wealth Management, Singapore, where his last held position was desk head, Indonesia and Jakarta representative office. 

The appointments of Chee Kong, Hong Leng and Ng took effect yesterday and all three people are based in Singapore.

Banks in Singapore have been faced with a need to recalibrate their Indonesia-focused operations in recent months after the country last year launched a tax amnesty campaign. Industry practitioners say this will force some banks to develop more onshore offerings to Indonesia clients, putting a squeeze on some firms operating from Singapore and other hubs.

(This article originally ran late in the Asia time zone yesterday.)