Julius Baer adds 11 private bankers in Singapore

Swiss private bank Julius Baer has continued the aggressive build-up of its Asian team with a group of hires to newly created roles in Singapore.

Vincent Lim becomes private banking team head for Southeast Asia. With around 30 years' experience spanning private banking and investment banking, he was previously Société Générale Private Banking's country market manager for Singapore and Malaysia.

Another senior hire is Evelyn Yeo as head of investment advisory services. She was previously a vice-president and investment consultant at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in Singapore, but left the German firm in April 2008. Yeo has not been working since then for personal reasons.

Deutsche declined to comment on whether Yeo had been or would be replaced, while SG confirmed that Lim had left the bank, but would not comment further.

Julius Baer's other new appointments include specialists in treasury, capital markets, structured products and investment advisory areas, but the bank declined to reveal any other names.

"These hires are in line with local regulatory authorities to position Singapore as Asia's financial centre," says spokeswoman Lim Li Koon.

The expansion follows the February appointment of David Lim as head of private banking for Southeast Asia, in addition to his role as deputy chief executive. Julius Baer has also made a string of other hires in recent months, including international desk head Christopher Burgess from Clariden Leu, co-head of Asia investment solutions Lee Boon Keng from UBS, and relationship managers Lawrence Lua and Frances Lee.

The Swiss firm also acquired ING's private-banking business in Switzerland last year, although the Asian unit went to OCBC and became Bank of Singapore earlier this year.

Julius Baer's total client assets amounted to Sfr266 billion ($238 billion) as at the end of April, with assets under management accounting for Sfr175 billion.