Allocated Bullion Solutions, the Singapore-based brokerage in precious metals that works with wealth management clients, among others, has appointed an independent non-executive board of directors and a new chairman. It also said it is “building momentum” for a new platform release in the first three months of 2015.

Allocated Bullion Solutions, the Singapore-based brokerage in precious metals that works with wealth management clients, among others, has appointed an independent non-executive board of directors and a new chairman. It also said it is “building momentum” for a new platform release in the first three months of 2015.

The chairman is Victor Liew; other members of the board are Ronny Tan; Kazuaki Takabatake and Michael Stanhope. ABS, which was founded in 2013, told this publication that the positions are newly created.

“With the new board members in place, ABS can now call more strategically on key individuals who have wide-ranging experience in banking, finance, wealth management, commodities and exchanges,” the firm said in a statement late last week.

The firm is the kind of business that taps into Asia's continued strong interest in precious metals investing, notwithstanding some recent falls in the price of gold. Singapore is also home to large storage facilities for precious metals, as an example shows here.

Among details of the board members, ABS said Liew, who has over 30 years of experience in banking, finance and commodities, was chairman of OUB Bullion and Futures and global head of markets at OUB Ltd. He served on the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee from its inception in 1987, and was the chairman from 1996 to 2001. Liew helped develop the Singapore International Monetary Exchange from its establishment in 1984, later becoming director and subsequently the chairman. Other roles have included chairmanship of Fullerton Fund Management between 2004 and 2011. Since 2009, he was chairman of CapitaRetail China Trust Management. He has also been a director of Accuron Technologies Limited since 2004 and the vice chairman and council member of the Singapore Institute of Management.

Ronny Tan has been chief country officer, for 12 years, of Deutsche Bank; he is the chairman of Assisi Hospice, as well as a board member of the Singapore Art Museum and the Sentosa Development Corporation. In addition, he is a board trustee of the Singapore University of Technology and Design and serves on the Taman Jurong Citizen Consultative Committee. He stepped down in June as vice-chairman of Deutsche Bank.

Kazuaki Takabatake (“Kaz”) has over 22 years of experience in finance, on-line platforms and working with exchanges. He was most recently the CEO of Saxo Capital Markets Pte, a wholly owned subsidiary of Denmark-based Saxo Bank, where he also served as a director for Saxo Bank’s Australian, Hong Kong and Japanese licensed entities.

Michael Stanhope has an extensive background in financial services in Asia, Europe and North America; he has been in Asia-Pacific since 1995 – first in Hong Kong for six years, then in Sydney and Singapore, thereafter returning to Hong Kong in 2007. He has a background in the publishing sector; for example, in 1993, he joined Euromoney Publications. In 1995, Stanhope joined Thomson Financial Services to conceive and launch Finance Asia Magazine; while he was MD of Finance Asia, he also launched the Asian Debt Review, Asian Private Capital Magazine and started the Finance Asia Conference Business.