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  • UBS Adds 300 Jobs in Singapore

    UBS Adds 300 Jobs in Singapore

    UBS continues to accelerate growth in Asia, despite an economically troubling coronavirus pandemic, with plans to add 300 new jobs in Singapore.

    Asia’s largest wealth manager will boost its existing 3,000-strong headcount in the city-state by 10 percent over the next 18 months, according to a report.

    The bank is also reportedly tapping into Singapore’s Job Support Scheme – a government-backed program that provides wage subsidies to retain employees in light of the ongoing pandemic.

    UBS’s new hiring drive will target both local graduates as well as mid-career individuals to develop sustainable skills through a program called Singapore UBS Program for Employability and Resilience (SUPER). The program aims both to create a pipeline of financial talent for Singapore and also support prospective workers in a difficult job market.

    The program is a promise to upskill our own people to give them the capabilities they will need in the future», said August Hatecke, UBS Singapore country head and APAC co-head of wealth management.

    The vision is to create the financial workforce of the future, added Edmund Koh, president of UBS Asia Pacific. UBS has the knowledge and experience to make this happen and in partnership with the Job Support Scheme, we are confident we can make a difference.

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  • OCBC Brings Wealth Advisory Online

    OCBC Brings Wealth Advisory Online

    The bank launched its virtual wealth advisory service in April, at the height of Singapore’s partial lockdown, and saw a 45-percent increase in the sale of wealth products in the first 10 days, compared with the 10 days.

    OCBC Bank has seen a positive response from its customers to non-face-to-face wealth conversations, as sales of wealth products, including unit trusts to bancassurance products, and from structured investments and bonds to foreign exchange products, grew when it moved the wealth advisory process online as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

    This has allowed customers to review their investment portfolios during a time of market volatility and seize investment opportunities, OCBC said in a press release on Tuesday.

    The highly regulated wealth advisory process was previously a complex face-to-face process involving over 50 pages of documents and a comprehensive Financial Needs Analysis. But since April 18, the bank’s financial and wealth advisors have been conducting meetings and sales advisory via video and screen-sharing facilities in place of physical face-to-face interactions, using e-signatures and pdf documents sent via encrypted email instead of paper.

    The bank highlighted growing digital adoption for both banking and wealth solutions in the first quarter of the year, including investments made on its RoboInvest platform, as well as online time deposit placements and unit trust purchases.

    While many customers are still accustomed to face-to-face interactions with our bankers, even after the Covid-19 outbreak, this virtual process will become a new normal, Sunny Quek, OCBC Bank’s head of consumer financial services, Singapore, said.

    OCBC previously said it is rethinking its branch network strategy Covid-19 circuit breaker has diverted traffic from physical branches and prompted a surge in the adoption of digital baking services.

  • Libra Poaches Top Credit Suisse Crime-Fighter

    Libra Poaches Top Credit Suisse Crime-Fighter

    The bank’s top anti-money laundering executive is leaving for Facebook-backed payments project Libra.

    Sterling Daines is leaving Credit Suisse for Libra, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The bank had poached Daines three years ago from Goldman Sachs to run its financial crime compliance, or FCC, activities under top compliance boss Lydie Hudson.

    He is the latest representative from traditional finance to head for Libra, an upstart payments system governed by a Swiss-based association. Last month, Libra said it is hiring HSBC’s top lawyer Stuart Levey as its CEO, and also tapped the weighty support of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.

    Neither Daines nor Libra responded to a request for comment. A 2018 sanction from Swiss watchdog Finma for several money-laundering scandals fell in the early days of Daines’ tenure at Credit Suisse.

    The Swiss bank is poised to replace him with Tam Ludford, a 12-year Credit Suisse veteran who will add the job to his current role as global head of core compliance, surveillance, and investigations.

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  • Regional Fintech Startups Open HQ in Singapore

    Regional Fintech Startups Open HQ in Singapore

    Ayannah and Equity Capital Advisors will merge their businesses in India, the Philippines and Indonesia to form Ayannah Global, headquartered in Singapore.

    Philippines-based digital financial services provider Ayannah and India-based payments company Electronic Cash and Payment Solutions (ECAPS) have announced a merger to support their goal of providing affordable and accessible digital financial services to the growing middle class in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

    The new entity will serve over 10 million customers through mobile apps and a growing network of over 60,000 retail touchpoints, Ayannah Global announced on Tuesday. The company caters to underbanked customers in the two regions using a suite of fintech solutions through agent networks for remittances, payments, insurance and loans.

    The group currently operates a rapidly growing remittance and payment business in India and the Philippines, and recently launched Kaya, a digital marketplace connecting middle-class customers and SME entrepreneurs with banks, lenders and insurers in the Philippines and will launch versions in India, Indonesia and Vietnam later this year.

    The company also appointed veteran banker Ray Ferguson as chairman of the Ayannah Global board. Ferguson has over 30 years of banking experience across five continents and has held senior roles in Standard Chartered Bank, including as CEO in Taiwan, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, the Americas and Singapore.

    He was also group chief banking officer at Arab Banking Corporation in Bahrain. Ferguson is based in Singapore, where he also chairs digital life insurer Singapore Life. He is also the founding partner of Caber Partners, a Singapore-based fund manager and advisory firm that focuses exclusively on the intersection of finance and technology.

    Ayannah’s new Singapore headquarters will support the company’s expansion plans, talent acquisition, and strategic partnership, the announcement said. It is also targeting $30 million to $50 million in its series B funding round to support its growth ambitions in new markets.

    Widespread smartphone usage across our target markets provides a ripe landscape for a financial inclusion revolution, while the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the demand for at-your-fingertips financial services, Praveen Suri, Ayannah Global co-chief executive officer, said.

    The firm is backed by venture capital firms Wavemaker Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, and 500 StartUps, as well as several large family offices across Asia.

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  • HSBC Adds Offshore Investment Options

    HSBC Adds Offshore Investment Options

    The bank has become the first international bank in China to roll out Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership (QDLP) investments.

    HSBC is expanding overseas investment options for its Chinese high-net-worth (HNW) clients under a partnership with China International Fund Management – 51 percent-owned by J.P. Morgan Asset Management – to distribute asset management plans investing in QDLP, the bank announced on Tuesday.

    The QDLP scheme facilitates investments in offshore traditional and alternative investments by allowing qualified foreign asset managers to raise money in Chinese currency from a qualified individual and institutional investors in mainland China to invest in alternative assets abroad.

    This new scheme will help clients diversify their investments and leverage overseas opportunities to mitigate risks in their overall portfolio and further grow their wealth, especially amid uncertainty in the global markets, Richard Li, executive vice president and head of wealth and personal banking, HSBC China, said.

    Unlike the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QDII) program, QDLP can direct Chinese domestic investors’ funds to overseas markets and allow investments in alternative assets, including hedge funds, private equity funds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

    A QDLP pilot was launched by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange in 2013. Since its launch, China has granted a total of $5 billion in quotas.

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  • Citi Appoints APAC Tech Vice Chair

    Citi Appoints APAC Tech Vice Chair

    Will McLane was named Asia Pacific vice chairman of technology at Citi, according to an internal memo, in addition to his existing role as vice chairman of the global financial institution’s group (FIG).

    We have asked McLane to assist the APAC technology team in covering clients for unique stations to help scale BCMA’s (banking, capital market advisory) innovative pitching efforts globally, the memo said, adding that he would continue to support FIG clients in Asia.

    According to the bank, McLane alongside other seniors in Asia, has applied innovative techniques for pitching such as videos, multimedia, props, and more in the last 18 months.

    This role is a natural extension for [McLane], as he has been instrumental in providing critical thought leadership and creativity in pitching, resulting in several landmark transactions, the memo continued.

    Scaling these innovative approaches and aligning them with our global relationships will help differentiate Citi, particularly in the current COVID-challenged operating environment.

  • CIMB Appoints Group CEO

    CIMB Appoints Group CEO

    He succeeds Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, who resigned as group CEO of CIMB Group Holdings and CEO of CIMB Bank in March to join the Malaysian cabinet as finance minister.

    CIMB Group, Malaysia’s second-largest financial services provider by assets, has appointed Abdul Rahman Ahmad as group chief executive officer/executive director for CIMB and CEO/executive director of CIMB Bank, effective June 10, the bank announced in a statement.

    Abdul Rahman brings more than two decades of experience in leadership roles across several industries, including as CEO of Malaysian Resources Corporation, CEO of Media Prima, CEO of government-linked private equity firm Ekuiti Nasional, and president and most recently as group CEO of asset management firm Permodalan Nasional.

    As the industry undergoes fundamental changes, he will bring a fresh perspective to lead CIMB’s continued transformation and build upon its successful ASEAN franchise, CIMB chairman Mohd Nasir Ahmad said in the statement.

    CIMB offers consumer banking, commercial banking, investment banking, Islamic banking, and asset management products and services. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the Group is present in all 10 Southeast Asian nations, with 697 branches as of March 31, 2020.

    Beyond Southeast Asia, the Group has market presence in China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, the U.S., and U.K. CIMB Group operates its business through three main brand entities, CIMB Bank, CIMB Investment Bank, and CIMB Islamic. CIMB Group is also the 92.5 percent shareholder of Bank CIMB Niaga in Indonesia, and 94.8 percent shareholder of CIMB Thai in Thailand.

  • JPMorgan South & Southeast Asia CEO to retire

    JPMorgan South & Southeast Asia CEO to retire

    The Chairman and CEO of South & Southeast Asia for JPMorgan, Kalpana Morparia is reportedly planning on stepping down from her role in Q1 2021.

    Morparia first joined the firm in 2008, and in addition to her regional roles acts as the Senior Country Officer for JPMorgan in India, based in Mumbai. Speaking of the offer to join the firm, Morparia said: “Out of the blue, I received this offer from JPMorgan. This was again one of the great turns of fate that I joined a great organization like JPMorgan. Despite all the negative clouds you see today in the country, I believe in the great growth story of India. JPMorgan is extremely focused on serving its clients in India.

    Prior to joining the American firm, she was affiliated with ICICI Bank, an Indian multinational banking and financial services company, for over three decades.

    She first joined ICICI in 1975, beginning in the bank’s legal department, as she pursued a Law degree following her science-focused studies. In 1991, Morparia traveled to the USA to study capital markets at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Subsequently, she enacted the listing of ICICI Bank in 1999 on the New York Stock Exchange and is credited with the 2002 merger of ICICI Bank and ICICI.

    Morparia will be succeeded by Madhav Kalyan as Senior Country Officer for JPMorgan India, who currently serves as Managing Director and CEO for the India operation, entering the role in Q4 2009, according to his LinkedIn.

    Leo Puri is reportedly going to be appointed as Chairman of South & Southeast Asia, joining JPMorgan in Q1 2021, and Murli Maiya will take up the reins as CEO. Both will report to JPMorgan’s CEO for Asia Pacific, Filippo Gori.

    In a statement, JPMorgan said: “Kalpana Morparia, Chairman, South and Southeast Asia, informed the firm of her desire to retire. She has agreed to stay with the firm until Q1 2021, and help lead the firm’s efforts in South and Southeast Asia as we and our clients adapt to the new economic and work environment.”

    “Leo is a very senior and experienced finance professional who will bring a wealth of industry knowledge and depth of relationships. He will be dedicated to covering our critical external stakeholders, including key clients, regulators and industry bodies,” the company statement continued.

  • UBS Nabs Top Credit Suisse Private Banker

    UBS Nabs Top Credit Suisse Private Banker

    Wealth manager UBS is poaching the banker instrumental in setting up Credit Suisse’s entrepreneur’s bank. He is the first prominent defector to join Iqbal Khan at UBS.

    UBS is enlisting Remi Mennesson to set up a financing team in a bid to provide better and faster service for its wealthiest clients, according to a memo. Mennesson is a discreet Swiss banking heavyweight and 20-year veteran of Credit Suisse, where he was a key ally of top private banker Iqbal Khan.

    At Credit Suisse, Mennesson led a strategic transactions unit that catered financing solutions to ultra-high net worth clients, generally viewed as those with more than $30 million in bankable assets. Khan and his co-head Tom Naratil have renewed emphasis on the segment by carving it out into a smaller group in January.

    Mennesson, a managing director at Credit Suisse, will join UBS in November. He will report to four co-presidents: investment bank co-bosses Rob Karofsky and Piero Novelli as well as Khan and Naratil. A spokesman for UBS confirmed the contents of the memo, which was first reported by Reuters overnight.

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  • HSBC Digital Payment User Growth Surges

    HSBC Digital Payment User Growth Surges

    HSBC’s PayMe – Hong Kong’s largest e-wallet operator – reached 2 million users, fuelled in part by the city’s love for card and tile games.

    The 2 million users represented a 25 percent year-on-year increase as transactions in the broader e-wallet payment activity, run by 10 operators, tripled due to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s faster payment systems (FPS).

    According to HSBC’s managing director and head of PayMe Kerry Wong Chu Po-yin, the accelerated growth was driven by the ongoing pandemic and increasing bill settlements.

    We have seen above-average growth in registration and more active usage of PayMe over these few months of Covid-19 pandemic,” Wong said in an SCMP report. The increase is seen in settling of bills, including those related to online social games such as mahjong and poker.

    The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused significantly accelerated digital adoption in Asia across banks and client segments. It took PayMe 17 months to acquire its first million users but around eight months to achieve the second million.

    Need for digital access aside, the coronavirus pandemic has created a bankconstant demand for healthcare goods – some merchants with 15,000 to 40,000 transactions in a single day involving surgical face masks, according to Wong.

    «Our payment platform also helps start-ups and other businesses to accept payment easily,» she said. «Looking ahead, we will line up more big companies [such as utility providers].»

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  • HSBC Ordered to Restart and Deepen Overhaul

    HSBC Ordered to Restart and Deepen Overhaul

    The economically crippling coronavirus pandemic has driven HSBC’s board to push the British lender not only to restart the original overhaul strategy but also further deepen cost cuts.

    The ongoing health crisis has prompted the board to review the HSBC’s recent reorganization, according to a «Financial Times» report citing unnamed sources from the bank, and consider more drastic measures.

    The bank has been undergoing restructuring changes while concurrently attempting to retain most jobs. After announcing its plan to cut 35,000 jobs, $4.5 billion in costs and $100 billion in risk-weighted assets, HSBC announced a pause most of the job cuts while proceeding with its original plan «wherever possible»

    Intensified restructuring could potentially include more job cuts or a possible sale of its U.S. business, its retail network in France and operations in smaller non-strategic markets, the report added.

    A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment on the report.

    HSBC has been continuously facing a stampede of challenges after finally confirming its permanent chief executive Noel Quinn in March this year. Since then, the London-headquartered bank has faced social unrest in Hong Kong, a temporary pause to its plans to cut 35,000 jobs, a dividend cancellation fiasco and now a greater overhaul driven by the pandemic.

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  • HSBC Appoints Private Banking Product Head

    HSBC Appoints Private Banking Product Head

    HSBC Private Banking named a new global head of products, investment, and collaboration based in Hong Kong.

    Lavanya Chari joins from Deutsche Bank in Singapore where she was last its global head of products and solutions for private banking.

    According to an HSBC statement, Chari will lead HSBC’s product strategy serving both private banking and personal banking client needs, effective July 20. Chari will report to Annabel Spring, head of Customers and products for the wealth and personal banking unit as well as the CEO of HSBC Private Banking.

    Chari joined Deutsche Bank in 2002 and had since held various senior roles across its wealth amendment and global markets business. Previously, she also ran other businesses such as Asia structured investment solutions, global commodities asset structuring globally, and rates asset structuring for Europe.

    Chari will be charged to cover a full continuum of clients across HSBC’s banking segments from personal banking all the way to family offices, according to a recent comment by regional head of wealth and personal banking Greg Hinston, who placed extra emphasis on the latter segment.

    The newly merged unit, with a combined $1.4 trillion in assets, will look to target markets where it has scale – Britain, Hong Kong, and Mexico – with a focus on mortgages, wealth, and issuance products, and unsecured lending.

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  • Maybank Posts Q1 Profit Growth

    Maybank Posts Q1 Profit Growth

    The bank’s improved quarterly performance was the result of the sale of some liquid assets and fixed income instruments, which raised net fee-based income.

    Malaysia’s largest lender recorded a profit of RM2.05 billion ($470 million) for the first quarter of the year, an increase of RM240.4 million or 13.3 percent year-on-year, according to financial results released on Thursday.

    However, the bank’s group president and chief executive Abdul Farid Alias said the results do not reflect expectations for the rest of the year, as the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was not yet known.

    The full effects of rate cuts across key markets will show in 2Q income, with net interest margin expected to compress 15bps in the current rate environment, Maybank said in its outlook for 2020.

    Given the strong trading income and heightened risk going forward, the bank is making additional provisions of about RM600 million for loan losses, RM400 million for forward-looking assessment based on weakening macro-economic factors, and RM200 million for retail portfolio slippage.

    Maybank said its priority was to help support the domestic economies of its home markets and to work with affected borrowers to ensure viable solutions that support employment and prevent business failures in the near term.

    In Singapore, its profit before taxation was S$77.3 million, an improvement of more than 100 percent from the same period a year before, which recorded a loss before taxation of S$79.7 million, which was due to higher loan loss allowances.

    Net fund based income was 11.8 percent lower on-year at S$170.4 million, attributed to margin compression, while fee-based income grew 26.1 percent on-year, led by wealth management and investment gains. At the same time, overhead expenses increased by 7.5 percent due to higher personnel and information technology costs.

  • HSBC Zones in on Family Offices in Asia

    HSBC Zones in on Family Offices in Asia

    The U.K.-headquartered bank will place a much greater focus on the family office segment in Asia following the new merger of its wealth unit.

    Over the next three years, HSBC will look to grow client assets in the unit at a double-digit rate, according to a report. The recent merger of the private banking and retail wealth business formed a unit that now manages around $1.3 trillion in assets globally including nearly half from Asia.

    And of the broader market, HSBC will look to add greater focus on wealthier clients, especially those with sufficient assets to oversee via a family office.

    With the combination, there is a big, big focus on family offices going forward,» said Greg Hingston, recently appointed regional head of wealth and personal banking at HSBC. «And it all fits within that focus around increasing penetration into the high and ultra-high net worth segments.

    In addition to segment focus, the bank has also seen a boost in digital activities in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic that has reduced physical traffic and branch access.

    In Hong Kong, average monthly equity and FX transactions surged 63 percent and 65 percent, respectively. Retail activities saw similar trends with 94 percent of all regional transactions in March conducted online.

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  • Revolut Singapore Strengthens Leadership Team

    Revolut Singapore Strengthens Leadership Team

    The fast-growing digital bank has added a CEO, chief compliance officer and head of growth in Singapore, where it now employs over 30 people, it announced on Tuesday.

    U.K.-based fintech Revolut has appointed James Shanahan as its Singapore chief executive officer, who brings more than 25 years’ experience with large banks, insurers and third-parties, particularly in Asia.

    Shanahan, who joined Revolut in March, was previously Railsbank’s Southeast Asia chief of staff. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer for insurer Singapore Life, and held a variety of roles at Ataca, Avaloq, Axa, ANZ, and Standard Chartered. In his new role, he will be responsible for growing Revolut’s local business and expanding into wider Asian markets, a statement said.

    His appointment follows the appointment of Martin Gilbert, the former Standard Life Aberdeen co-chief executive who sat on the MAS International Advisory Panel until early 2020, as chairman of Revolut’s board.

    Compliance Risk Specialist Joins

    Revolut also appointed Rayson Tan as chief compliance officer, chief risk officer and head of legal. He brings more than two decades’ experience in the field, and was most recently a managing director in the Compliance & Regulatory Affairs department of Credit Suisse.

    Tan has also held various country, regional and global AML and sanction roles at Deutsche Bank and UBS.

    Business Development Hire

    Pam Chuang, the former vice president of sales and partnerships at GoBear, was appointed head of growth. She was part of the pioneer team at the Singapore-based financial supermarket, and was instrumental in scaling its reach across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

    Before that, Chuang held leadership roles for companies including AIA Group, ReMark International, Saxo Bank and Aon.

    Rapid Growth

    Founded in 2015, Revolut launched in Singapore in 2019, where it operates a multi-currency wallet. 

    In February, it announced a $500 million series D raise led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm TCV, which it said will be used to improve existing products and services as well as expand its outreach outside of its U.K. base.

    Earlier this month, Revolut announced that it had officially launched a bank in Lithuania, and will use the European banking license that it received for the operations there to start awarding loans, issue credit cards and open savings accounts.

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