StanChart cuts global UHNW role in reshuffle
Standard Chartered Bank’s global head of ultra-high-net-worth, Steven Richards Evans, will move on in December to pursue other opportunities, after a decade with the firm, amid changes to the UHNW team in Asia.
He will not be replaced in this capacity, as the British firm had already done away with the global UHNW head post. Richards Evans has been serving as head of Indonesia market, his other role at StanChart, said a spokeswoman.
Richards Evans is understood to have stepped away from the global UHNW role in July. He officially took on the Indonesia market lead in January.
When asked to comment about the reasons for removing the role, a spokeswoman said the UHNW segment was in fact an increasingly important client segment for the bank. She added that it was a structural change “to evolve our UHNW proposition to meet the sophisticated needs of our UHNW clients in a seamless manner”.
StanChart has now switched to a regional – rather than global – management structure for the UHNW segment, said the spokeswoman.
Alison Chan, head of UHNW proposition for Greater China and North Asia (GCNA), now reports to Desmond Liu, GCNA head of private banking. Enoch Tan, head of UHNW for Asean and South Asia (ASA), now reports to Srinivas Siripurapu, ASA head of private banking and head of global South Asia community (GSAC).
They had all previously reported to Richards Evans.
Replacing Richards Evans as Indonesia market lead in November will be Andrew Ho. He was most recently Indonesia team head at UBS, where he spent the last 15 years in a number of senior positions. UBS did not respond as of press time.
StanChart has also appointed Vishal Jain as market head for GSAC in Asia, effective November. He will join after eight years at Barclays, where he was managing director in charge of 40 relationship managers across the India private banking business and part of the leadership team that set up the onshore business. Both Ho and Jain will report to Siripurapu.
Jain will assume the leadership of the Singapore non-resident Indian (NRI) team from David Koay and the Hong Kong NRI team from Wellington Ng. Koay and Ng will continue in their primary roles: Koay as head of relationship management for Asean and Ng as head of relationship management for the Philippines and NRIs.
The reorganisation follows the arrival of Didier von Daeniken, who joined StanChart in December as global chief executive for private banking and wealth management from Barclays Wealth Management, replacing Michael Benz, as reported.
He has since hired former colleagues from Barclays, including Siripurapu and Vivian Chan, who will join in January 2017 to replace Desmond Liu, who is to retire, as reported.
Credit Suisse names Thailand head of wealth
Credit Suisse has appointed Thippa Praneeprachachon as its first onshore head of wealth management for Thailand. Based in Bangkok, she reports to Christian Senn, Thailand market group head for private banking.
Thippa had joined in June from EFG Bank as an expert relationship manager leading a six-strong team of investment planners in Bangkok. Credit Suisse had set up the wealth management desk in Thailand in May, as reported.
Thippa worked at EFG in Singapore, where she was a senior client relationship officer for 10 years. In this role, she was responsible for setting up the bank’s local investment advisory operations in Thailand.
Prior to EFG, Thippa was the head of private wealth management at Deutsche Bank’s Bangkok branch. She has also worked at Citi Private Bank for 16 years in Bangkok and New York.
EFG Private Bank did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Friends Provident shuffles Asia team
Friends Provident International (FPI) has further shuffled its Asia team, continuing a restructuring after being acquired by fellow UK insurer Aviva earlier this year.
Margaret Chiu, Aviva’s Hong Kong head, is now also acting Hong Kong head of FPI. She succeeds Charles Barrows, who was named as vice president director of Astra Aviva Life in Indonesia, in August. FPI is seeking a permanent replacement for him.
The insurer had originally appointed John Elkovich as Hong Kong head in July, but he did not join the firm due to personal circumstances. Elkovich was previously Singapore-based head of investment advisory and wealth planning for Asia at ANZ. He could not be reached by press time.
Meanwhile, Patrick Wei, Aviva’s Singapore-based chief distribution officer for Asia, will relocate to take up an additional role as general manager of FPI Hong Kong. He will assist Chiu in running the business.
Meanwhile, Toby Simpson, Singapore-based sales director at FPI, will leave the firm in November. The firm is seeking a replacement for Simpson.
Taiwan FSC chairman resigns
The chairman of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Ding Kung-wha, resigned on October 3 following criticism of the regulator’s handling of a breach of compliance rules in the US by Taiwanese state-run group Mega Financial Holdings. Vice chairman Huang Tian-mu has been named acting chair.
The New York branch of Mega International Bank of Taiwan, the banking affiliate of Mega Financial, was fined $180 million in August by the New York State Department of Financial Services for breaching anti-money laundering laws.
The FSC had then set up a task force in collaboration with the Executive Yuan, the government's executive branch, to follow up on the Mega Bank case.
The investigation is complete and Mega Bank has been punished, but Ding said in a statement that he and the FSC were still being criticised. He decided to resign to “demonstrate his innocence” and in the hope of alleviating the impact of the case on the commission, he said.
Ding had succeeded Jennifer Wang as chair in May. Before joining the FSC, he was chairman and chief executive of Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation.
Huang has been FSC vice chair since September 2013. Prior to that, he was director-general of the regulator’s securities and futures bureau.
Sun Life creates new digital role in Hong Kong
Canadian insurer Sun Life Financial has appointed Julian Anderson as head of strategic delivery and digital transformation in Hong Kong, effective from next month.
This is a newly created position to add in new force to drive programmes to achieve Sun Life’s strategic objectives, the company said. This will presumably mean Sun Life is putting more focus on fintech and electronic delivery of its services.
Anderson will report to Jason Dehni, Hong Kong chief executive of Sun Life, who came onboard in May.
Anderson joins Sun Life from Australia’s QBE Insurance, where he was Hong Kong-based head of digital innovation and IT strategy for emerging markets. QBE declined to comment on Anderson’s replacement.
Anderson’s hire follows that of David Varley as Asia head of high-net-worth and wealth structuring last week, reporting to Dehni.
Deloitte appoints new Asia heads
Deloitte has appointed Jim Reichbach as Asia-Pacific financial services industry leader and Patrick Tsang as chief executive for China, both effective from October 1.
Reichbach replaces Chris Harvey, who left the company in May, while Tsang succeeds Lawrence Chia, who is retiring from the firm.
Based in Tokyo, Reichbach will develop the Asia-Pacific financial services practice. Reichbach is relocating to Tokyo from New York, where he was Deloitte’s global banking and securities leader and global lead client service partner. He retains the previous role.
Zurich-based Anna Celner has now taken on the global banking and securities leader role in addition to her previous post as UK vice chairman at Deloitte.
Based in Shanghai, Tsang was Deloitte China’s eastern region managing partner, before the latest appointment. The eastern partner role has been taken on by Dora Liu, Deloitte China’s national financial services industry audit leader.
Fintech startup hires Citi executive
Singapore financial technology start-up Call Levels has appointed Ryan Liew as director of strategy and business development in Hong Kong, a new position aimed at expanding the business in North Asia.
His responsibilities include developing relationships with banks, brokers, fund managers and other fintech firms.
Liew was a director of e-commerce at Citibank in Hong Kong and before that North Asia head of e-commerce at Barclays.
Call Levels is a cloud-based application that allows users to set levels for certain asset classes and alerts them when the price hits the level in question.
Other people news reported on AsianInvestor in the past week:
Eaton Vance to open in Japan amid Asia buildout