RBS suffers staff turnover in product sales, structuring
UK bank RBS has seen several departures from and arrivals to its product sales and structuring teams in Asia in the past few months, largely on the equity side.
Two senior members of the Asia product sales team quit in June: Garry Frenklah, Singapore-based head of private investor product and equity derivatives sales for South Asia, and Paul Fong, a director on the same team.
Fong is understood to be moving to a job in Singapore, but AsianInvestor could not ascertain where by press time. Frenklah is opening a showroom in Hong Kong for Resource Furniture, a distributor of Italian furniture, but would not comment on any other potential job move.
Both were with RBS for five years, Frenklah having joined from SMBC Capital Markets and Fong from KBC.
Also in Singapore, exotics rates trader Mehdi Belhachmi has departed, and his destination is believed to be an investment bank in Hong Kong, but he was not available for confirmation.
Meanwhile, equity structurer Stuart Currey and FX structurer Henry Wong have also left RBS's Hong Kong office. Currey, a fluent Mandarin speaker, has a job lined up, but AsianInvestor could not confirm where by press time. Before joining RBS, he had been at Deutsche Bank.
In addition, Charles Pattison resigned four months ago from his role as Hong Kong-based director in dynamic strategies and custom indices. Last month he took up a newly created role as a director in the global equities structuring (GES) team at UBS. Pattison reports to Daryl Chen, Asia head of investment solutions sales in the GES team in Hong Kong.
Frenklah had reported to Abhinav Gorawara, managing director and head of equity and structured product retail sales. Gorawara joined RBS in July last year, along with three other sales staff from Bank of America Merrill Lynch – Ben Wilder, Cici Bian and Monique Sin. He has since hired several others from BoA Merrill.
Currey reported to Shane Edwards, global head of equity derivatives and custom indices, while Wong ultimately reported to Richard Summerbell, RBS's Singapore-based global head of FX structuring.
Asked whether the departing executives had been or would be replaced, an RBS spokeswoman said they would either be covered by external hires or internal moves, but could not give specific details.
She also cited several equity derivatives sales staff who have come on board in the past three months, some as replacements and others as additions. They include several hires from BoA Merrill, including Andrew Wong, who was named managing director in equity derivatives solution sales in Hong Kong.
Other hires from BoA Merrill are Nupur Sachdevan, working in equity derivatives sales for India in Mumbai; Ren Hwang, as Hong Kong-based head of equity derivatives sales for Taiwan; and Jessie Cheung in equity derivatives solution sales in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Masaki Tanimoto, moved from Credit Suisse in Tokyo to work in RBS's equity derivatives solutions business in Japan, and Brian Lo has joined the equity derivatives sales team, arriving from JP Morgan.