North Asia head Lim quits DBS to join JP Morgan

May 30, 2011

Edwin Lim has quit DBS Private Bank along with two colleagues. The trio are expected to join Peter Flavel in his build-out of JP Morgan’s private wealth management business.

DBS Private Bank’s North Asia head Edwin Lim has quit along with two colleagues to join JP Morgan’s private wealth management team under Peter Flavel, AsianInvestor understands.

Lim resigned this month and is set to leave DBS by the end of June. DBS has also lost Patrice Huang, who focused on Taiwan/China, and Gabriel Chan, who covered North Asia from Singapore.

Sources suggest they will work under Flavel, chief executive of JP Morgan’s Asian private wealth management business, who quit as chief executive of Standard Chartered Private Bank last July.

Flavel is tasked with building out the firm’s PWM business to focus on high-net-worth clients and families with between $10 million and $30 million in assets. JP Morgan Private Bank traditionally has focused on the ultra high-net-worth segment for clients with at least $30 million.

Flavel’s expansion targets have been set out as China, India, Australia and Indonesia. It is understood Lim, Huang and Chan would focus on Greater China.

A spokeswoman for JP Morgan in Hong Kong declined to comment for this article.

A spokeswoman for DBS Private Bank in Singapore notes that the firm expects to appoint a successor to Lim “shortly”. In the interim, it says the North Asia private banking business will be overseen by Tan Su Shan, group head of wealth management, Olivier Crespin, chief operating officer, and V. Arivazhagan, head regional investment and treasury products.

Lim joined DBS Bank Hong Kong in August 2006 as head of Greater China under Desmond Liu, who was head of North Asia but joined HSBC Private Bank the following year as head of Greater China. Liu is now HSBC Private Bank’s North Asia head.

Lim has 20 years’ private banking experience and has held senior positions at Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Barclays.

He set up a Taiwan desk for Credit Suisse in 1998 and managed a team of 15 private bankers to perform sales, distribution and advisory of financial products to clients in Taiwan, mainland China and the Philippines.

DBS Private Bank only recently hired Lawrence Lua from Julius Baer as managing director and head of its Southeast Asia business based in Singapore. He started on April 1.

It was a role that DBS had sought to fill permanently since Kwong Kin Mun departed in late 2009 to become head of Southeast Asia for Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.

Southeast Asia accounts for about half of DBS Private Bank’s business. In an effort to diversify, the firm has focused to date on North Asia under the reign of Tan, who joined from Morgan Stanley as group head of wealth management in June last year.