Here is a summary of the moves, appointments and departures in the wealth management industry for the Asia region.

Australia

National Australia Bank announced the hire of Christine Yates as executive general manager for NAB Private Wealth. Yates was previously the EGM for NAB's Global Financial Institutions Group & International.

AMP Financial Services director of investment management Stephanie Weston left the company amid a major restructuring decision that will likely see her team merged into sister company AMP Capital Investors. Weston had been with the company for almost two years, when she joined from Mercer. It is not known to where she is moving.

US investment manager Vanguard names Rodney Comegys as head of investments Asia-Pacific and head of the equity investment group for Asia-Pacific. Comegys has been with the firm for 14 years and previously led the ETF trading and index analysis tea. For his new role, he relocated to Vanguard's Australian head office in Melbourne, where he took over the regional role from Gregory Davis. Davis returned to the company's Pennsylvania headquarters to serve as the global head of the fixed income group.

ASX-listed fund management and advisory services firm Stanfield Funds Managmeent appointed William Liam Ng as managing director, to replace to Darren Olney Fraser, who remains on the board as non-executive chairman. In 3 February, he also officially joined as managing director.

Morgan Stanley Australia wealth and equities head Brendan Goffinet announced that he is leaving his post and moving back to the US in March 2014, citing family reasons. In his place, the company asked Ian Chambers to take on the responsibility, in addition to his current role as local head of institutional sales to officially become the head institutional equity and wealth management, Australia. He continues to report to Gokul Laroia, head of institutional equity and wealth management for Asia. Locally, Chambers will continue to report to Steve Harker, Morgan Stanley Australia chief executive, for both divisions.

Simon Warner, head of macro markets within the AMP Capital fixed income team, was named the firm's new fixed income head. Warner took over from Mark Beardow, who was named chief investment officer of specialist investment teams in December 2013.

MetLife Australia appointed Damien Green as interim CEO in preparation for the departure of Marc Lieberman. Green is currently the head of employee benefits in Asia and will take on this additional role until Lieberman's replacement is named.

ANZ promoted Kate Gibson so general manager for small business banking effective 24 March 2014. She was previously the general manager for the Greater Melbourne branch network. She reports to Mark Whelan, managing director of corporate and commercial banking. Tania Motton, ANZ general manager for regional business banking, was also given the additional responsibility for corporate and commercial banking in South Australia -- a role she has held in an acting capacity since November 2013.  

US investment research firm Morningstar named Anthony Serhan, the current chief executive of Morningstar Australaisia, to managing director of research strategy, Asia-Pacific, for the global research group effective 1 April 2014. Heather Brilliant, current chief global director of equity and corporate credit research, and Mark Roomans, chief operating officer of Morningstar Europe, will become co-CEOs of Morningstart Australasia in Sydney. Brilliant and Roomans will manage the business together throughout 2014 and Brilliant will become the sole CEO in 2015.

Equity Trustees handed the newly created role of investment portfolio manager to James Buckley, responsible for private clients and wealth management partners. He joined the firm from Phillip Capital Australia, where he has head of asset management. He reports to George Bourbouras, the chief investment officer.

Bennelong Wealth Partners, the wealth management arm of Australia's Bennelong Group, appointed George Nassios to the newly created role of chief investment officer role as part of efforts to capture a larger share of the high net worth market. Nassios begins on his post in mid-May 2014 and will report to Fiona Rowland, chief executive. He joins from Deutsche Bank.

Hong Kong

Optimizer Capital appointed Graham Bibby as investment manager to lead all of Optimizer capital funds at the Hong Kong-based investment advisory firm, as well as launch two new funds based on a newly-developed strategy which returned 32.70 per cent inn 2013. Bibby is one a five-year agreement with the firm. He previously founded Richmond Asset Management, the boutique financial advisory firm that advises Optimizer Capital’s managed funds.

US-headquartered law firm Orrick added Keith Cheung as partner for its corporate group in Hong Kong. Cheung focuses on corporate finance transactions, including acting for issuers, sponsors and underwriters in initial public offerings of securities on the Main Board and Growth Enterprise Market of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He also advises listed issuers on general compliance and other related transactions.

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong  issued a lifetime ban from financial services on former American Express Bank employee Lo Hoi Luen after being found guilty of fraudulent conduct. On 8 February 2010, Lo was sentenced by the District Court to 18 months in prison following her conviction of 30 counts of forgery.

JP Morgan Asset Management announced the appointment of Paula Stibbe as its new head of liquidity sales for Asia-Pacific. Stibbe took over from Travis Spence, who had assumed a new position as head of global strategic relationship group for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan under the Asia funds management business. She relocated from New York to Hong Kong and is responsible for regional offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney.

Cheetah Investment Management, the Hong Kong-based alternative fund management and advisory firm, bulked up its internationalisation efforts with the hire of Brian MacDougall to the newly-created role of business development director. He will lead the company's plans to expand its services beyond Hong Kong and toward the US and Europe. Before the appointment, MacDougall was the executive director of Swiss private bank Syz & Co following Syz's acquisition of Oria Capital, a fund of hedge fund business he had co-founded in 2004.

Australian bank Westpac announced major appointments to its Hong Kong team. Alex Tam joined as head of corporate and institutional banking for Hong Kong, while Steven Yu assumed the role of head of trade sales for North Asia. Andrew Whitford, head of Greater China, had also moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong to take responsibility for the branch, in addition to his existing duties. Martin Goodacre was also relocated from Singapore in 2013 to take up the new role of head of financial markets for Hong Kong. The moves follow the recent expansion of the firm's Hong Kong office, which now includes an enhanced dealing room to support its expanding customer base and Renminbi business.

EFG International appointed Alvin Ma to the newly created role of head of emerging wealth under the wealth management team in Hong Kong to cater to the growing North Asian market. Ma was previously the general manager at China CITIC Bank International.

Withers relocated its US-based lawyer Wei Zhang to Hong Kong in response to a growing interest for its US tax planning services for Asia based families. Zhang joined Withers in 2010, where she had been working on a broad range of tax, estate planning and expatriation issues for international families with US connections. She now works closely with the Chinese wealth planning team.

RBC Global Asset Management made three key hires to its Hong Kong business. Tomonori Kaneko and David Soh joines as equity analysts, while Clement Cheng as equities trader. Kaneko joined from Marshall Wace, Soh joined from Credit Suisse, while Cheng moved from Harvest Asset Management.

Citibank appointed Virginia Luk as head of insurance, giving her overall responsibility for this business in Hong Kong, an area that includes the wealth planning space. She previously worked at HSBC, where she served as global head of Wealth Insurance (East).

AXA Investment Managers, the UK-headquartered asset management firm, strengthened its Asian presence with new key appointments. Jim Veneau was named head of credit Asia, joining from HSBC Global Asset Management where he served as investment director for the Asian fixed income team. Christy Lee was named portfolio manager within the Asia fixed income team. Lee moved from UBS Asset Management in Hong Kong. Both are based in Hong Kong and report to Rob Andrew, head of fixed income for Asia.

Admiral Investment, the Hong Kong investment management firm, named real estate industry veteran Kenneth Tsang to its board of directors as senior consultant. Tsang was previously a senior analyst, leading the Hong Kong and China real estate listed securities research team at Sanford Bernstein.

Japan

Chi-X Japan named Makoto Nagahori as president and chief operating officer in Japan, after serving as head of sales since July 2013.

New Zealand

Harbour Asset Management, the New Zealand investment firm, named Shane Solly to its Wellington investment team to contribute to the firm's equity research and portfolio management team. In over 20 years working in financial markets, Solly held senior positions at Goldman Sachs (NZ), ING (NZ) and AXA. He left Mint Asset Management after serving as head of equities for seven years.

Singapore

UK fund management firm Hermes Fund Managers relocated London-based executive Jakob Nilsson to Singapore to assume a newly-created leadership role in Singapore. His old post has been assumed by Johan Stromberg, who previously served as associate director at Prosperity Capital Management.

RBC Wealth Management announced two senior hires for its sales and investments teams in Asia, both based in Singapore. Lim Chee Tian was named director, reporting to Soh Chye Guan, managing director and market manager in Singapore. Lu Xinyi was appointed investment counsellor also reporting to Soh. Soh is new to the company, joining only in January 2014 from Barclays Wealth, along with Leslie Goh, who became part of the firm as investment counsellor from Union Bancaire Privee.

Fortune Venture Investment Group, the Taiwan-based global private equity firm, appointed former UBS executive Lee Yuen Wai to lead its Asia business as managing director of investments, based in Singapore. Lee served as an advisor to the Asian technology fund of FVIG between 2005 and 2008. Before he assumed his new role in 5 February 2014, he was director of UBS in Singapore, overseeing investments of high net worth individuals in the private wealth management division.

Aviva Asia named Ken Rappold as its new regional chief financial officer to focus on the Greater China and South East Asia markets. Rappold joins the company in April 2014 and will be based in Singapore. He will report to Khor Hock Seng, chief executive of Aviva Asia.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Steven Billiet as the new chief for its Singapore business. He will also be actively engaged with clients and regulators, while overseeing the development of JP Morgan AM's South East Asia operations. He took over from Andrew Creber, who relocates to Australia to become the chief operating officer of JP Morgan AM Australia in the first quarter of 2014. Billiet was previously the CEO of ING Investment Management Asia-Pacific in Singapore.

Credit Suisse saw the departure of Stefan Mueller who had been the bank's head of product management in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as a senior executive in the private banking part of the Swiss firm. Mueller had been replaced internally by Rajesh Manwani.