PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global consulting firm specialising in
assurance, tax and advisory, announced that it had expanded its Asian
financial advisory team by 55 in July in a bid to address the growing
regional demand for professional services. In 1 July, 29 new partners
joined the Mainland China office, 14 joined in Hong Kong, six in
Singapore and six in Taiwan. In terms of areas of practice, 25 were
added to the assurance arm, 13 to tax and 17 to advisory. The hires
effectively brought PwC's total partner headcount in the four offices to
690. PricewaterhouseCoopers employs some 16,000 staff in Asia overall.

Sun Life Asset Management, the mutual funds
subsidiary of Sun Life Financial-Philippines, revealed plans to increase
its financial advisor count and forge more partnerships with private
banking units of key institutions by the end of 2012. The move to boost
its staff numbers comes as the firm tries to expand its wealth
management presence through more alliances with major bank
institutions.

NAB Private Wealth, the private client unit of
National Australia Bank, named Kieren Perkins as the new state manager
for Queensland. Perkins was head of private client and business
development at NAB Private Wealth in Queensland. He has been in the
process of transitioning to his new role since May 2012. In this new
capacity, he will manage daily operations at the private banking and
wealth business, focusing on private wealth strategy and proposition.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment, the Australian
financial services firm, named Andrew Mellor to the newly-created role
of associate director for consultant relationships. Mellor was
previously an account manager for research at Colonial First State,
where he managed key accounts across research houses representing its
asset management strategies. The firm said the new role is in line with
efforts to bolster its consultant relationships offering in the country.

AMP Capital, the Australian fund management firm,
appointed Kerry Ching as its new managing director for Asia ex-Japan.
Ching started at AMP's Hong Kong office in 2 August, where she will
focus on managing key client relationships alongside institutional sales
and business development functions. She previously worked as country
head for Hong Kong as Fidelity Investment Management.

PDL International, the UK-based investment services
firm, named Keith Campbell Golding as chief representative for the
Middle East and Asia, responsible for marketing and distributing the
firm's product range to local clients. The appointment was announced
alongside plans to expand the firm's distribution activity in the two
regions' strong high net worth and institutional client bases.

Malaysian financial services firm CIMB Group made
two appointments to its team. David Richard Thomas was named group chief
risk officer, reporting to the board of directors/board risk committee.
He was previously the chief risk officer for Asia-Pacific at Royal Bank
of Scotland. Encik Shahnaz Jammal, meanwhile, was named deputy group
chief financial officer after having previously served as head of the
group chief executive's office. Before joining CIMB Group in March 2009,
he worked for Goldman Sachs in London, Bankers Trust and Dresdner
Kleinwort Wasserstein in London and ABN AMRO Bank in Kuala Lumpur.

Australian boutique advisory firm Crystal Wealth
Partners appointed John McIlroy as company director and shareholder.
McIlroy was previously chief executive of the company and in his new
role will be part of a team of three directors. Prior to joining Crystal
Wealth, McIlroy founded Multiport, the self-managed super fund and
managed accounts business that was acquired by AXA in 2009.

DBS Group, the Singaporean bank, named Derrick Goh
as the new head of its POSB unit, the branch of consumer banking
services offered by DBS in the city-state. Goh is currently the chief
operating officer for institutional banking and will not assume his new
post until 1 October 2012. He replaces Koh Kar Siong, who was appointed
regional head of DBS Treasures, as incumbent head Pearlyn Phau moves to
become the head of consumer banking in Hong Kong.

JP Morgan Private Bank hired Fan Jiang, a former
Goldman Sachs executive, to lead its Asian strategy team based in Hong
Kong. Jiang previously served as chief investment officer for the
Asia-Pacific private wealth management business of Goldman Sachs. In his
new role, he will develop and implement investment strategy and tailor
it for clients in Asia, alongside teams in the US, EMEA and Latin
America. He reports directly to Richard Madigan, chief investment
officer.

Royal Bank of Scotland China chairman and chief
executive Sherry Liu departed her post to pursue "outside interests."
Liu assumed the role in April 2011 and will be replaced by Alex Chu,
head of international banking for North Asia. Qing Cheng Hua remains as
country executive.

Signet Capital Management, the UK-based fixed income
hedge funds specialist, announced the resignation of Francois Hora as
Asian head after four years in the role. Hora joined another hedge fund,
Complus Asset Management, in June to become its new business
development head. His former colleague, Wisely Ngai, remains with the
firm in Hong Kong. There are no immediate plans to replace Hora, the
firm said.

FNZ Australia, the technology provider to the wealth
management and financial services sectors, named former Australian
minister for superannuation Nick Sherry as chairman. Before joining FNZ,
Sherry served as senior advisor to the superannuation practice at Ernst
& Young. His appointment was announced alongside the promotion of
Martin Jennings as the new chief executive for the Australasian
division. Jennings is currently the managing director of the Australian
and New Zealand business.

United Overseas Bank, the Singaporean bank,
confirmed the departure of long-time chairman Wee Cho Yaw in 2013, after
him having served in the position since 1974. He steps down effective
April 2013, but will continue to advise the bank in an honorary Chairman
Emeritus position. Hsieh Fu Hua will then become a non-executive
chairman. Hsieh is a member of UOB's board and serves as director at
Temasek.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia appointed Matt Comyn
as its group executive for retail banking services, with effect from 10
August. Comyn has been with the group since 1999 and has held a variety
of senior management roles, most recently as head of the local business
banking unit. He replaced Ross McEwan, who left the firm in May to
become the head of the UK retail banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland.

ABN AMRO relocated Paul Timmermans from London to
Hong Kong to become head of escrow and settlement Asia. The move was
made alongside the launch of a new escrow and settlement services
business in the region. Timmermans was previously part of the bank's
Rotterdam office. He reports both to Maaike Steinebach, country
executive for Hong Kong and head of energy, commodities and
transportation for Asia, and Lout Lapidaire, managing director for
escrow and settlement in Rotterdam.

BNY Mellon Asia-Pacific named Paul Schulte as head
of investment strategy, a newly-created Hong Kong-based role. Schulte,
who will focus on developing the firm's Asia-Pac investment and market
knowledge platform, reports to Alan Harden, chief executive for the
Asia-Pacific investment management unit, and Jack Malvey, chief global
market strategist for investment management in New York. He was
previously the global head of financial strategy at China Construction
Bank International Securities, where he created the Greater China
research platform.

Swiss bank UBS confirmed the departure of Stephen
Gore as head of Asia mergers and acquisitions after working for 19 years
at the company. The bank did not say anything about Gore's next plan
although media reports show he may have moved to Bank of America Merrill
Lynch to become its head of M&A Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, based in
Hong Kong.

BNY Mellon appointed Brigette Leckie as vice
president of intermediary relationships, Australia, a newly-created
role, in line with the firm's efforts to expand product and client
services in the self-managed super funds market. Leckie joined from
Alliance Bernstein and reports directly to Bruce Murphy, managing
director of BNY Mellon Asset Management Australia.

Genji Hosono stepped down as market leader of Credit
Suisse's Hong Kong division, without citing a reason. It is believed
that Hosono is one the verge of joining rival UBS, also in Hong Kong. A
replacement will be announced in due course.

Bermuda-based law firm Appleby relocated two senior
lawyers to its Hong Kong practice. Eliot Simpson joined Appleby in Hong
Kong as a partner and Joanne Collett joined as a senior associate, from
the firm's BVI and Cayman Islands offices, respectively. They will
provide advise in Asia on offshore litigation and insolvency matters and
will be the points of contact in the Asian time zone for the global
team.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation named Raymond
Chee as managing director of its securities business, OCBC Securities
effective 6 August. He replaced Hui Yew Ping, who left the firm to
"pursue personal interests." Chee has been working for the firm for 17
years, starting out as a relationship manager in corporate banking.

Hong Kong financial services firm CITIC Bank
announced the retirement of Doreen Chan Hui Dor Lam as chief executive
this year. Chan retires after a 15-year tenure with the company. She has
been CEO since 2002. Her retirement schedule and successor will be
announced in due course, the bank said.

Equity Trustees, the Australian fund management and
investment firm, named Anne O'Donnell as non-executive chairman for its
superannuation business. O'Donnell takes over from Rob Dillon, who
retired from his role as chairmn and director of Equity Trustees
Superannation. Adrian Young, managing director, also retired. O'Donnell
used to be managing director of Australian Ethical Investment.

Manulife named Nirmala Nair as chief legal and
compliance officer for its Singapore office. Nair replaces Clive
Anderson, who continues with his oversight of the legal and compliance
functions in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore and has taken an expanded
ASEAN role with Manulife Financial. She brings over 25 years of
industry experience to the position, having worked as an advocate and
solicitor in private legal practice for nine years and serving senior
roles at established life insurance firms in the city-state.

Rubik Financial, the financial technology and
software provider, boosted its wealth management division by adding
Wayne Wilson as managing director to lead the newly-acquired Coin
business. Coin is the financial planning software arm of Macquarie Group
acquired by Rubik Financial in early August 2012. Wilson most recently
served as a consultant with WRW Consulting and from 2009 to 2010 worked
as head as Asgard and Advance at BT Financial Group.

Desmond Liu, the former head of North Asia private
banking at HSBC, stepped down following a management restructuring and
the departure of his co-head. Liu was appointed to the role in late
2010, following the retirement of then-Asia private banking chief Monica
Wong. In November 2011, the bank announced a surprise new leadership
structure which saw Bernard Rennell take over all private banking
activity in North Asia, coming in above Liu. HSBC confirmed that Liu was
leaving the bank, without commenting further.

Barclays, the UK-headquartered bank, appointed Igor
Arsenin as head of its emerging Asia interest rates arm. Arsenin joined
the firm from Credit Suisse, where he last served as head of Latin
America fixed income strategy in New York. In his new role, he will be
working closely with Barclays' global rates strategy team, reporting to
Nigel Chalk, head of emerging Asia research.

Australian Financial Services, the Australian
financial planning and dealer group, appointed Alan Logan as chief
executive. Logan was previously a director a private consultancy fir
Bombora Advice. He replaced Peter Daly, who left AFS in June 2012.

HSBC Global Asset Management expanded its Asian
equity investment team in Hong Kong with the addition of Michael Chiu
and Karma Wilson as investment directors for equities, with a focus on
the fund management of Chinese equities and Asian equities,
respectively. Chiu, who joined from ING Investment Management, reports
directly to Mandy Chan, head of Chinese equities. Wilson, from AMP
Capital Investors in Sydney, now reports to Husan Pai and Michael
Dillon, co-heads of Asian equities.

MLC, the wealth management arm of National Australia
Bank, expanded its superannuation trustee boards with the appointment
of Richard Rassi. Rassi joined three trustee boards for super funds,
namely MLC Nominees, NULIS Nominees - Australia and PFC Nominees, which
are accountable to around 1.5 million members and some A$56 billion in
funds under management. In addition to his new duties, he now also
chairs the finance and audit committee at MLC.

Adveq Management, the global private equity fund
management firm, named David Seex to lead its newly-launched office in
Hong Kong -- its third in Asia. Seex was previously the head of
Asia-Pacific.

Manulife Asset Management appointed Peter Kim as
managing director, head of institutional sales in Korea. Based in Hong
Kong, Kim started with the company in July and reports to James Chen,
head of institutional sales and relationship management, Asia. He was
previously the director of Lapis Global Limited, based in Hong Kong.

Mercer named Edmund Teo as tje new wealth management
head for Asia, plus a principal consultant, bringing the consultant's
Asia presence to a 19-strong team. Teo leads Mercer’s wealth management
team, which provides research, advisory and portfolio management
services to Asian-based private banks, insurance companies, consumer
banks, financial planning organisations and platforms. He reports
directly to Cara Williams, the global head of wealth management in
London.

Skandia International, the offshore business of
London- and Johannesburg-listed Old Mutual Wealth Management, announced a
number of senior appointments in Singapore and Hong Kong. In Singapore,
Craig Ellis was made head of the region and principal officer for Royal
Skandia in Singapore and southeast Asia. He joined Skandia
International’s sales leadership team, reporting to sales director,
Victor France. Chris Ivinson was also appointed head of sales for the
region, reporting to Ellis. In Hong Kong, Alan Leung joined Royal
Skandia as head of strategic development for the Hong Kong region, a
newly created role. Leung moved from Swiss Privilege where he held a
number of strategic roles since 2006. He reports to Mike Leeson, Royal
Skandia head of sales for Hong Kong and NE Asia.

Western Asset Management, the UK-headquartered fixed
income manager, expanded its Asian capability with four hires. Desmond
Soon now leads the investment team based in Singapore as portfolio
manager. Joining Soon is Swee Ching Lim, who moves from London as credit
research analyst. The other two new hires are Wontae Kim and Desmond Fu
as portfolio analysts. The team reports to Chia-Liang Lian, the head of
investment management for Asia, based in Singapore.

Fidelity Worldwide Investment, the UK-based
investment management firm, appointed Raymond Ma as lead manager for its
$406 million Greater China fund. He takes over from Joseph Tse, who
stepped down in July after 22 years with the company for personal
reasons. Ma is the manager of Fidelity Funds China Consumer Fund and
continues to serve as head of the China Consumer Fund alongside his new
role.

Grace Barki, a former vice chairman and head of
Southeast Asia at Swiss private bank Sarasin, resurfaced at the Royal
Bank of Canada, as head of Southeast Asia. Barki resigned from Sarasin
in June. Her old duties have been taken up by chief executive officer of
Asia, Enid Yip, until a replacement is found.

Royal Bank of Canada Investor Services hired Kevin
Hogan as director for its client operations business in Australia. Hogan
joined from Macquarie Investment Management where he served as head,
fund accounting. At RBC, he will be responsible for managing the client
operations business in Australia and report jointly to Duncan White,
head of client operations in Asia-Pacific and David Travers, managing
director of Australia.

Federated Investors, the US-based investment
management firm, appointed Craig Bingham to lead its new Asia-Pacific
subsidiary. Bingham is now based in Melbourne and reports to Gordon
Ceresino, vice chairman of Federated Investors and executive director
for international distribution. Prior to Federated, Bingham served as
chief executive for Aviva Investors' Australia and Asia-Pacific regions.

Oppenheimer Investments Asia appointed Robin Green
as its new chief executive. Green takes the lead role as broker-dealer,
along with the designation of president. He joined the firm from MF
Global, where he served as head of Asian insitutional equity sales for
the Hong Kong branch. He replaces Steve Bernstein, who resigned in
December 2011.

Manulife Asset Management moved Endre Pederson,
fixed income portfolio manager for Asia, from Hong Kong to Singapore to
establish the latter's strategy in building out its ASEAN business. Also
appointed was Rana Gupta as senior portfolio manager, responsible for
the research, analysis and coverage of Indian equities. Both Pedersen
and Gupta report to Jill Smith, senior managing director for Manulife
Asset Management Singapore. In addition, Lawrence Wee was named head of
institutional sales for South Asia to help build the company's client
and consultancy relationship management and servicing division.

Barclays appointed three executives to lead its new
independent asset managers team in Singapore. Cedric Lizin was appointed
as head of the independent asset managers segment, Asia-Pacific at
Barclays. Lizin is also head of Japan, as well as head of key clients,
Asia-Pacific, at Barclays. The firm also announced the hire of Annabelle
Chow as director, team head, as well as Josephine Koh, as director, in
July. Both Chow and Koh joined from Credit Suisse in Singapore, where
they were team head and deputy team head, respectively. 

Royal Bank of Scotland added two senior economists
to its team in Asia. Louis Kuijs joinsed RBS in Hong Kong as chief China
economist, responsible for China macroeconomic coverage. In Singapore,
Enrico Tanuwidjaja joined the bank as southeast Asia economist,
responsible for macroeconomic research coverage for the region. Both
Kuijs and Tanuwidjaja report to Sanjay Mathur, RBS’s head of economic
research, Asia-Pacific ex-Japan.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners Australia named
Angus Carson as head of superannuation and government institutions,
responsible for business development and client relationships. Carson
was previously an associate director of institutional sales at
Ambassador Funds Management Services. He is joined by Stephen Copeland,
who is also newly-appointed as manager of client services and
operations. Copeland used to be with MLC Private Equity where he served
as a senior analyst.

The CFA Institute, the standard setter for
investment professionals, named Paul Smith as managing director of
Asia-Pacific operations effective 3 October. He previously operated his
own firm, Asia Alternative Asset Partners, but had also worked at HSBC
and Bank of Bermuda. His appointment comes after an extensive global
search to succeed Ashvin Vibhakar, who continues to lead strategic
initiatives for the organisation as a managing director.

Henry Lee, the chief investment officer of Nan Fung
Investment Adviser, the family office of one of Hong Kong's wealthiest
dynasties, resigned. Lee spent two years in the role at NFIA and told
WealthBriefing Asia that he is contemplating a couple of options for
future roles, also in the Asian family office space. He is believed to
be succeeded at the family office by a senior banker from Goldman Sachs.

Nomura, the Japan-headquartered financial services
giant, bolstered its Asian fixed income business with the hire of Rig
Karkhanis as head of fixed income for Asia ex-Japan, based in Singapore.
Karkanis joined the firm in September 2010 as head of fixed income,
Singapore from Millenium Partners. He replaces Jai Rajpal, who was
appointed global head of FX, based in London. He now reports  locally to
Minoru Shinohara, the chief executive for Asia ex-Japan, and regionally
to Yutaka Nakajima, the head of fixed income trading for Asia-Pacific
and Takashi Abiko, the head of fixed income sales, Asia-Pacific.
Globally, he reports to Steve Ashley, the global head of fixed income.

Wayne Yang, a 17-year Citi Private Bank alumnus,
returned to firm to take up the newly-created role of managing director
and head of client coverage for Asia-Pacific. Yang most recently worked
at Deutsche Bank as managing director and head of wealth management
South East Asia. He reports to Bassam Salem, the Hong Kong-based chief
executive for Citi Private Bank in Asia-Pacific.

CDC Group, the UK government's development finance
arm, announced the resignation of Anubha Shrivastava as its Asia
investments head. Shrivastava was previously the managing director for
Asia investments. Her departure was announced alongside the appointment
of Hiti Singh and promotion of Clarisa De Franco as portfolio directors
for the Asia funds team. Singh was previously with the Africa team,
while De Franco had been working for the Asia investment team.

MLC Investment Management, the investment and wealth
management arm on National Australia Bank, announced that its chief
investment officer, Nicky Richards, is leaving effective October 2012.
Richards has been serving in the post since 2010 and will be replaced by
Jonathan Armitage, who will act in a temporary capacity until MLC hires
a successor.

Kevin Hardy, the head of global investments for
Asia-Pacific at Northern Trust left, and is believed to be joining rival
BlackRock to lead its APAC index equity team. Reports say Hardy is due
to leave the US asset manager by the end of September and will take up
his new role with BlackRock in October. William Mak was appointed
interim Hong Kong country head at Northern Trust and will lead global
investments for Asia-Pacific. Mak is currently Singapore country manager
and head of Southeast Asia.

Sumit Sibal, previously the head of global South
Asia at RBC Wealth Management, left the firm to join Emirates NBD in
London as its head for non-resident Indian business (UK & Europe).
Sibal, who joined Emirates NBD over a month ago, had previously spent
eight years with Citi covering the NRI market.

Société Générale Cross Asset Research, the research
arm of French banking giant Société Générale, appointed Klaus Baader as
its chief economist for the Asia-Pacific office. Baader joined Société
Générale in 2009 and served as chief Euro area economist in London
before moving to Hong Kong in 2012. He reports to both Michala
Marcussen, the global head of economics, and Guy Stear, head of research
for Asia-Pacific.

E Fund, the Chinese fund management firm, bolstered
its team with the hire of Eugene Lee as the global head of sales and
marketing. Lee was previously Asia head of equities at BBVA, the Spanish
bank. She replaces Marie Chew, who tendered her resignation in the end
of August.

Latham & Watkins, the UK-based law firm that
specialises in financial services accounts, boosted its Singapore
practice with the transfer of two of its London corporate partners to
the city-state. The relocation of Luke Grubb and Rod Brown effectively
takes the total number of partners at the firm's Singapore branch to 11.
Latham & Watkins has 36 lawyers in Singapore, including the 11
partners.

Coutts, the UK-based private bank, hired 14-year UBS
veteran Phillip Reade as its new head of credit risk for Asia based in
Hong Kong. Reade spent the last 14 years at UBS holding various credit
roles. At Coutts, he will be responsible for the overall credit risk
framework in Asia, covering sanctioning processes, portfolio management,
policy and management information, risk assessment and controls. He
reports to Errol D'Souza, chief risk officer for Asia.

Eleven-year UBS veteran Kai Sotorp returned to the
Swiss bank's global asset management business as head of Asia-Pacific,
after a stint in Chicago and a brief retirement. Sotorp returned 3
September and is based in Hong Kong, reporting to John Fraser, chairman
and chief executive of UBS Global Asset management. Sotorp replaced
Christof Kutscher, who left the bank to return to Europe early in 2012.
Scott Keller, acting head of Asia-Pacific since April 2012, continues in
his role of head of Pan Asia, reporting to Sotorp.

UK lending giant Barclays appointed Antony Jenkins
as its new chief executive, succeeding Bob Diamond who resigned in July.
Jenkins was previously the CEO for retail and business banking for
Barclays in Africa and Absa. He reports to newly-installed
chairman-elect Sir David Walker, who himself replaced former chairman
Marcus Agius. Agius resigned the day before Diamond and continues as
chairman until November, when walker officially takes over.

StepStone, the New York-based private equity and
investment firm, strengthened its Asian business with the appointment of
Mu-Shin Kim and Andy Tsai as managing directors. Kim is now responsible
for investment and business development in Korea and Japan, while Tsai
handles Taiwan and broader Asia. Both are based in the Beijing office.