The latest moves and appointments for senior roles for Asia-Pacific wealth management.

Bank of Singapore
Bank of Singapore has appointed Melanio Manjoy Lazaro (pictured) as market head and chief representative of its Philippines representative office. 

Lazaro reports to Robin Heng. The appointment took effect immediately.   

At BoS for more than a decade, Manjoy was most recently appointed the interim chief representative of the Philippines rep office in September last year.

The Philippines’ wealth management market is expected to reach $121.5 billion this year and the sector’s AuM is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 2.86 per cent between now and 2028 (source: Statista).

In other moves, Bank of Singapore in December 2023 appointed Shovit Sahai as head of product management group. He is based at the bank’s Dubai International Financial Centre branch.

FalconX
FalconX, an institutional digital assets prime brokerage, yesterday said it is expanding its Asia-Pacific operations. It has hired Ivan Lim as trading manager, APAC derivatives, based in the firm’s Singapore offices. 

Lim has spent 12 years on the sell-side as a derivative trader managing crypto and foreign exchange portfolios. His experience includes principal market-making, risk management and execution strategies. He has worked at Citibank and CIC and was head of trading at Sparrow Exchange. He also led franchise development at Genesis Global Trading in 2021.

"We have experienced robust growth in our OTC derivatives business and anticipate this momentum to build as APAC traders increasingly adopt digital asset derivatives and structured products,” Matt Long, who was appointed as general manager of APAC at FalconX last year, said. “We are confident that digital asset structured products will become integral to the investment portfolios of institutional and professional investors over the coming years."

The rise of firms such as FalconX highlight how the world of digital assets/cryptocurrencies has continued to develop worldwide, notwithstanding high price volatility, scandals such as the collapse of FTX, the exchange, and a complex international regulatory landscape. The sector has drawn attention of wealth managers, among other parts of the financial services industry.

The firm says it is the first [US] CFTC-registered cryptocurrency swap dealer. It is backed by investors including Accel, Adams Street Partners, Altimeter Capital, American Express Ventures, B Capital, GIC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Thoma Bravo, Tiger Global Management and Wellington Management. 

The company has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Hong Kong, Bengaluru, Singapore and Valletta.