A roundup of moves in the Asia-Pacific wealth management market during April, 2018.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced the following moves:

-- Ng Nam Sin, currently assistant managing director (corporate, HR & IT services) and chief executive of the Institute of Banking & Finance Singapore, will be seconded to the IBF to take on the role of CEO on a full-time basis. Ng will lead the IBF as it expands its role to provide career advisory and job placement services for the financial sector;
-- Chia Der Jiun, currently assistant managing director (markets and investment), will be appointed as assistant MD (corporate, HR & IT services) and takes over Ng’s role.
-- Leong Sing Chiong, currently assistant MD (development and international), will be appointed assistant MD for markets and investment, taking over from Chia; and
-- Ng Yao Loong, currently executive director (markets policy and infrastructure), will be appointed as assistant managing director (dvelopment & international), replacing Leong.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing named Laura Cha, a non-executive director at HSBC, as its new chairman. Cha was elected by HKEX’s board of directors. She takes over from Chow Chung-kong, HKEX said in a statement. Among other roles, Cha is a non-official member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, the group advising the jurisdiction’s government. Cha has also held roles with the Securities and Futures Commission and China Securities Regulatory Commission (source: Bloomberg).

BNP Paribas appointed Paul Yang as acting chief executive for China. The bank did not provide further details.

India-based Equirus Capital, the investment bank, made a “foray” into wealth management, appointing former Citibank senior executive Ankur Maheshwari as CEO for this business segment. Maheshwari is responsible for setting up the business and expanding it. New recruits will report to the new CEO. He has 15 years’ of financial industry experience, having previously worked at Citibank where he headed investment sales for the global consumer bank. He has also worked at J P Morgan, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints.

DBS appointed Dr Bonghan Cho, a luminary in the world of using AI, to its board and that of DBS Bank. Dr Cho is founder and CEO of Equalkey Corp, a South Korea-based company he established in 2016. Equalkey Corp aims to shake up the teaching of mathematics, using the powers of artificial intelligence. Between 2014 and 2015, he was executive vice president and chief innovation officer for Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, based in South Korea. In that role, he applied AI and Big Data analysis to insurance underwriting and handling of claims. In this role, he introduced AI and Big Data analysis into the insurance underwriting and claims handling process. Prior to that, he was group deputy CEO and chief information officer of Hana Financial Holdings and president and CEO of Hana INS.

Citi Private Bank appointed Timothy Morse as global market manager or Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei with immediate effect. Morse is based in Singapore and reports to Jyrki Rauhio, the private bank’s South Asia head. The role was a new one for the bank. Prior to this role, Morse was a team leader for the Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia markets at JP Morgan Private Bank, where he had worked since 2011. Morse had also been the head of onshore investment advisory for Asia and head of offshore for Australia with Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management before that, dual roles which he undertook for more than four years when he was with the bank.

Nikko Asset Management appointed Yoichiro Iwama as outside director. He also became chairman of the board of directors. Iwama was most recently representative director, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. He was also chairman of the Japan Securities Investment Advisers Association.

The chief executive of Australia’s largest wealth manager, AMP, resigned after a probe revealed his firm had engaged in widespread misconduct. Craig Meller, who had held the position since 2014, stepped down with immediate effect.

May Hsu, head of greater China and vice chairman for the private bank of JP Morgan, decided to focus solely on the vice chairman role. James Wey succeeded as the head of greater China.In 2008 Wey joined the bank and started as a banker with the Greater China team; he later became a team leader for greater China market. In his new role as head of Greater China, Wey reports to Kam Shing Kwang, Asia private banking chief executive.

Singapore-based Kamet Capital Partners, the single family office, added a former deputy chief investment officer at Allianz Investment Management. Kian Ek Quek was appointed as chief risk officer and chief financial officer and reports into Kerry Goh, CEO and CIO. Prior to his appointment, Quek was appointed at Allianz IM, the Asia-Pacific investment management office of Allianz’s insurance arm, in 2017. He was also the CFO at the firm since 2010. Kamet also confirmed to this publication that it has appointed an equity analyst, Amos Tan, from Allianz IM. He joins the five-member investment team as an investment analyst, and reports to chief operating officer, Derek Tay.

St James’s Place Wealth Management Asia, the international business of UK-listed St James’s Place, appointed a former CEO of another wealth firm, Mark Woodward, to its St James’s Place Partnership operation. Woodward has over 20 years’ experience in the financial planning and wealth management sector having previously worked in China, Japan, and UK. Most recently, he held the position of chief executive at Global Wealth Management, where he was responsible for operations across China, Japan, South East Asia and Europe. In his role, Woodward focuses on providing wealth management services to affluent and high net worth expatriates in China.

Union Bancaire Privée in Singapore named Sharmaine Han as named market head, Singapore, reporting to Ranjit Khanna. Han has working in the private banking sector for more than 25 years. She joins UBP's executive team. For the past 11 years, she worked at Standard Chartered Private Bank. Prior to this, she worked at HSBC Private Bank.

Jan Richards, group head of Southeast Asia at Deutsche Bank, and holding the title of managing director, resigned from her post to return to the US. Richards held her role in Singapore since May 2014, according to her Linkedin profile; prior to this, she worked for more than 18 years at JP Morgan, working from a number of financial locations.

M&G Investments appointed William Tan as head of intermediary channels for Asia. He reports to Jonathan Willcocks, M&G’s global distribution head. Based in Singapore, Tan covers private banks, external asset managers and other wealth managers in the region. He replaced Ben Cherrington, who will relocate to M&G in the UK later this year. Cherrington had worked in Asia for five years.

Tan has over 20 years of investment experience and prior to joining M&G was director of strategic solutions, Southeast Asia at Capital Group. He also spent seven years with Templeton Asset Management, where he was director and head of sales, retail distributions, SEA, from 2012 to 2014.

May Hsu, head of greater China and vice chairman for the private bank of JP Morgan, decided to focus solely on the vice chairman role. James Wey succeeded as the head of greater China. In 2008 Wey joined the bank and started as a banker with the Greater China team; he later became a team leader for greater China market. Wey reports to Kam Shing Kwang, Asia private banking chief executive.
Citi Private Bank appointed former senior UBS manager Julie Koo as head of Citi Investment Management sales for Asia-Pacific. She leads sales of the private bank’s discretionary investment management capabilities in the region, covering equities, fixed income and multi-asset class mandates, as well as sales of third party mutual fund, hedge fund, private equity and real estate offerings. Based in Hong Kong,
Koo reports to Roger Bacon, head of investments for Asia-Pacific, as well as Stephanie Luedke and Dan O’Donnell, global heads of CIM and CIM Alternatives respectively. She succeeded Adam Proctor, who was appointed global market manager for Singapore, Australia and New Zealand in February this year.

Asset Management One, part of Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group, made a number of top-level boardroom changes as three executives and directors stood down. 

Retiring from Japan’s largest asset manager were Yasumasa Nishi as president and chief executive; Akira Noguchi as director and managing executive officer, and Hajime Fukuzawa, managing executive officer. New appointees were Akira Sugano (president, CEO), Shinichi Aizawa (director, vice president) and Koya Iwabuchi (executive officer).

The deputy chief executive of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group retired. Graham Hodges, who has worked at the lender for 27 years, was deputy CEO from May 2009. He has held a range of senior executive roles including those of CEO ANZ New Zealand, group managing director for corporate banking and chief economist. Other roles have included a period in stock broking and work at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC and Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra.

UBS Asset Management appointed Sebastien Chaker as sales head, a new role, of its UBS Fondcenter Hong Kong. The team Chaker leads has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. Nicolas Huras moved from AM's Fund Management Services (FMS) business, to become head of sales for Fondcenter in Singapore. He has more than 14 years of experience in the fund industry and during his career in FMS, was responsible for helping to develop its strong presence in Southern Europe.

Chaker has more than 20 years' experience in the fund distribution and servicing space, holding senior positions with Citibank, Euroclear, Brown Brothers Harriman and Calastone. He has been promoting fund distribution services in Asia for over ten years and was most recently responsible for setting up and leading Calastone's Asia expansion.

India-based Reliance Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Reliance Capital, appointed Nitin Rao as its new chief executive. He is responsible for growing the wealth management offering to high net worth individuals. In this new role, Rao reports to Anmol Ambani, executive director at Reliance Capital. Rao joined Reliance Wealth Management after 19 years at HDFC Bank, where he was executive vice president of private banking group and third party products.

Citi Private Bank appointed Simon Kastono as global market manager for Indonesia. Kastono had been desk head for Indonesia at Bank of Singapore. Kastono reports to Jyrki Rauhio, South Asia head for Citi Private Bank. 

HSBC Private Banking brought back a senior figure, Sundar Ramani, to be its international and non-resident Indian market head, based out of Singapore. The position was newly-created. Ramani is responsible for business development across the Europe, Middle East, and Australia markets along with the NRI segment. He reports to Philip Kunz, Head of South-east Asia, HSBC Private Banking. 

With a total of more than 25 years of private banking experience, Ramani formerly worked for eight years at HSBC Singapore, overseeing the Malaysia market and South Asian segment regionally. 
Harvest Global Investments, the Asian and Chinese markets specialist, appointed Sebastien Gandon, Winnie Wong and Vicki Zhang as director of business development, fixed income portfolio head and senior business development manager, respectively. Gandon is responsible for developing the firm's international sales. He previously worked at East Capital, where he led the sales efforts in the Asia-Pacific time zone and continental Europe. He has also worked for several financial institutions, including Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management in Paris and Deloitte in Luxembourg. Sébastien holds a Master's degree in Finance from EDHEC Business School.

Wong takes charge of the fixed income portfolios run by HGI. She has worked for more than 13 years as an investment analyst and portfolio manager covering Asian companies. She previously held roles at Royal Bank of Canada, Warburg Pincus, and Credit Suisse. Zhang joined the China Sales team with roles of developing business for international clients and Mainland financial institutions. Prior to joining HGI, she worked as an institutional sales for CLSA Alternative Investment. She also worked at J.P. Morgan covering clients from Mainland China and Taiwan.