Weekly roundup of people news, Jul 12
FIDELITY LOSES NORTHEAST ASIA HEAD OF INTERMEDIARIES
Dominic Wong has left his role as Northeast Asia head of intermediaries at Fidelity International, and the Bermuda-based fund house is seeking a replacement, a spokeswoman told Asianinvestor.
She declined to provide the precise date of his departure, and Wong himself declined to comment. AsianInvestor could not ascertain his next move.
Wong had rejoined the firm in August 2009 after a 15-month stint at BlackRock. He had previously worked at Fidelity from 2004 to 2008 and before that at AllianceBernstein, HSBC Asset Management and Citi.
BNY MELLON STRENGTHENS JAPAN PENSIONS EFFORTS
BNY Mellon Investment Management has appointed Kenzo Tanaka as head of institutional sales for pensions, effective June 10.
In this newly created role, the focus on corporate pension funds will gathered at Tanaka rather than across the Japan pensions team. Based in Tokyo, Tanaka reports to Satoshi Nishimoto, co-head of pensions coverage in the institutional sales and marketing divisio. Tanaka is added with the aim of a more comprehensive service to one of the relatively large pension fund market in Japan, a spokesperson told AsianInvestor.
Tanaka's latest job was as Tokyo-based senior vice president of institutional sales at US fund manager Neuberger Berman from October 2018 through December 2018. Neuberger Berman did not respond to AsianInvestor’s queries as to who took over Tanaka’s role.
Prior to that, Tanaka was general manager of institutional distribution at Japan's Nissay Asset Management. He has also worked at Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, Merrill Lynch and Man Investments.
DEUTSCHE BANK COY OVER FULL IMPACT OF GLOBAL STAFF CUTS
A series of major global job cuts at Deutsche Bank have largely focus on its investment banking business, and the bank declined to comment on whether the changes will have an impact on other areas of business as its restructuring process goes on.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche declined to comment when AsianInvestor asked whether there has been or will be any impact on staffing levels of the wealth management, custody and asset servicing teams in Asia as a result of the restructuring.
Deutsche's asset management arm DWS Investments said its teams in Asia remain untouched at the moment, but declined to comment whether the overhaul would trigger any job cuts in DWS in Asia in the near term.
The German bank had said on July 7 it would reduce its headcount by 18,000 to around 74,000 by 2022 in a global restructuring.
The bank will exit its equity sales and trading business in the region, but declined to comment on whether its fixed income sales and trading, prime broking or asset servicing businesses in Asia Pacific would be affected by the global cuts.
CHINA GREAT WALL AM EXEC UNDER INVESTIGATION
Sang Ziguo, an assistant to the president of state-owned fund house China Great Wall Asset Management, has been put under investigation for "violating discipline and law", according to a statement put on the website of China Banking and Regulatory Commission on July 10.
The regulator did not give more detail on the reasons for the move, but the charge is generally seen to be linked to corruption. China Great Wall could not be reached for comment. The firm is one of four distressed debt companies that were created in the early 2000s to help China's leading banks restructure their bad loans.
FORMER VALUE PARTNERS SALES HEAD RE-EMERGES
Eric Poon, the former head of sales at Hong Kong fund house Value Partners, has joined specialised hybrid fund manager All-Stars Investments.
Poon’s Securities and Futures Commission licence with All-Stars Investment became effective on June 21. All-Stars did not respond to AsianInvestor’s emailed query about specific of his role there.
Poon left in January just a year after joining Value Partners. The fund house did not respond to queries about who was assigned Poon's responsibilities after he left.
NEUBERGER BERMAN SENIOR PM OF CHINA EQUITIES EXITS
Bin Yu, a senior portfolio manager of China equities of Neuberger Berman, has left the firm, AsianInvestor can confirm.
The spokeswoman of the US fund manager said Yu departed at the end of June. He was previously based in Hong Kong. She declined to comment further on whether Yu’s replacement has been identified.
SINGAPORE TRIO CONVICTED OF INSIDER TRADING
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) sentenced Leong Chee Wai, E. Seck Peng Simon and Toh Chew Leong to prison sentences of 36 months, 30 months and 20 months, respectively.
The trio were charged in August 2016 with a total of 333 counts of insider trading offences.The sentence found the individuals had carried out a front-running arrangement over seven years resulting in profits of S$8.07 million ($5.94 million).
Leong and E. had been working as senior equity dealers at Australia's First State Investments in Singapore, where they were tasked to execute trading orders. E was a remisier with UOB Kay Hian.
The MAS noted that, starting from March 2007 and ending in May 2014, Leong and E – Toh later joined them in August 2008 – colluded to profit from the price-sensitive confidential information that Leong and Toh received on intended orders by First State.
The State Court ordered that the sums of S$310,000, S$770,000 and S$1,350,000 be forfeited to the state from Leong, E. and Toh, respectively. In light of the convictions, MAS said it intends to ban Leong and E from performing regulated activities under the SFA for 15 years each, and barr Toh for 13 years.
INVESTMENT DIRECTOR EXITS BORDIER
Chiong Kong Chan, investment director of Bordier & Cie, has left the Swiss private bank, AsianInvestor understands.
An executive at the firm confirmed Chan had left the firm, but noted that his replacement was unavailable to speak due to being out of the country. The firm did not respond to queries on when Chan left or whether a replacement has been identified.
According to Chan's Linkedin profile, he had been with the bank since May 2017 looking after discretionary portfolios with a focus on equity instruments.
Bryan Goh, former chief investment officer for the private bank, also reently left the firm in April, according to his Linkedin profile, and subsequently joined Kaurna Family Office as its chief investment officer.
ENHANCED TRUSTEE LICENSE MAY SEE STATE STREET HIRING IN SINGAPORE
State Street said it gained a trust business license from Singapore's MAS that will allow it to offer trustee services for collective investment schemes offered to institutional investors and restricted schemes offered to accredited investors. The firm had been providing trustee services to Singapore-authorized, retail-only, collective investment schemes earlier.