Northern Trust appoints Greater China head

Michael Wu has been appointed to the newly-created role of head of Greater China region for Northern Trust.

The role covers both the asset management and asset servicing divisions of Northern’s business in the region.

Wu was most recently country manager for Northern Trust’s Beijing branch. In his new role he will have executive management responsibilities for the Hong Kong office in addition to his current responsibilities for the Beijing Branch.

He will report to William Mak, head of Asia-Pacific. 

“Michael’s extensive experience will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen our service capabilities and extend our asset servicing and asset management businesses across the Greater China region,” said Mak

Wu was appointed as chief representative for the Northern Trust Beijing Representative Office in 2008. Northern received its branch licence from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) in 2010, allowing it to provide client services directly from the Beijing office.

In Hong Kong, Northern’s clients include the $6.7 billion Hospital Authority Provident Fund Scheme.

The firm operates in nine locations across Asia-Pacific. In the past year, it has opened offices in Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Manila. The latter is a new processing and back office operations centre with 200 staff, to complement Northern’s existing operations centre in Bangalore.

William Mak was promoted from Singapore country manager to regional head of Asia Pacific in May 2014, succeeding Teresa Parker, who returned to the firm’s US headquarters in Chicago.

"Northern Trust's business in the Asia-Pacific region has expanded dramatically over the past five years, with assets under custody growing at an annual rate of 13%,” said Mak.

Australia is a key market for Northern and the Asia-Pacific custody arm has so far this year picked up two new super fund clients - the Government Employees Superannuation Fund (a $16 million mandate) and the Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme ($3.9 million).

As of December 31, 2014, Northern Trust had assets under custody of $6 trillion globally, and assets under investment management of $934.1 billion. In Asian markets, 70% of the firm’s revenues come from sovereign wealth funds and central bank clients.