HSBC names custody heads for Asia and China

HSBC Securities Services has named Jitendra Somani as Asia-Pacific head of global custody in Hong Kong and Edmond Ng as China head of global custody in Beijing.

Somani fills the position vacated by Tony Lewis last year, when he was promoted to head of global custody at the bank. Ng's position is a new one that reflects "increased interest in the [China] market", says a bank spokesperson. Somani and Ng report functionally to Hong Kong-based Lewis.

"In Asia generally, we continue to see increased levels of interest in our global custody services in the region from HSBC group clients," says Lewis on HSBC's reasons behind the appointments. "We make commitments to group clients to provide access to our products and services through staff based in the location of our clients, where ever possible."

Somani was previously head of transfer agency at HSBC Securities Services. He is cited by the bank for having a successful track record in product development execution, and has worked for HSBC for over 10 years.

Ng is relocating from the bank's London office, where he has worked as Europe head of global custody services for the past two years.

The two appointments come a few months after HSBC reorganised its Asia-Pacific sub-custody senior management. As of December, Andrew Bastow took over as Australia head of HSBC Securities Services and Peter Snodgrass as Japan head of sub-custody and clearing, while Shaik Ismail Hakim moved to a "senior sub-custody role" in Hong Kong.    

The bank has 350 people on its global custody team in Asia-Pacific and offers the services in 18 markets. As of September, HSBC Securities Services had $4.9 trillion in assets under custody and $2.7 trillion in assets under administration globally.