Asia moves: Credit Suisse appoints equity research head, Natixis makes string of hires, and more

Credit Suisse has appointed Erica Poon Werkun as the bank’s head of equity research for Asia-Pacific. Werkun joins from UBS, where she was previously head of Asian consumer and internet research. Prior to that, she was at Goldman Sachs covering the consumer and technology sectors in Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

Werkun has spent 17 years in equity research and seven years in investment banking.

BNY Mellon has announced two appointments to its third-party distribution team in Asia. Vivienne Lim joins the Singapore team while Billy Chung joins in Hong Kong. Both intermediary business development managers will report to Nicolas Kopitsis, head of third-party distribution. 

Lim has 15 years of sales and marketing experience working with private banks, retail banks and global fund managers. Most recently she spent four years as vice-president for business development at multi-affiliate manager Legg Mason in Singapore. Chung has 14 years of experience in client relationship management and business development, most recently as intermediary sales senior manager for Invesco in Hong Kong.

Natixis has appointed Robin Samee as chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific. Based in Hong Kong, Samee reports to Alain Gallois, chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, and to Véronique Sani, global chief operating officer. He takes over from William Hendriks, who has relocated to Paris as global head of corporate and investment banking operations. 

Samee joins from Allianz Group, where he was most recently chief operations officer for insurance based in Mauritius. Samee has more than 20 years’ experience, including a number of senior management positions with Societe Generale in Hong Kong, India, Korea, London, Paris and Singapore.

Natixis has also appointed Kwong-Wing Law as head of infrastructure finance for Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Kwong-Wing will report to Bruno Le Saint, head of strategic sectors and distribution for Asia and Emmanuel Gillet-Lagarde, global head of infrastructure finance. Kwong-Wing succeeds Bertrand Guiot, who has relocated to Natixis’ Montreal Branch as senior country manager for Canada. 

During his 25 years’ of experience, Kwong-Wing has held a variety of roles in a number of different firms, including Granville Baird Capital Partners, Nationwide Building Society and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. Most recently, he was the regional head of infrastructure finance at Natixis in London.

Natixis Investment Managers has appointed two senior hires to its Singapore office. Diane Poon joins in the newly-created role of head of wholesale, South-east Asia ex-Singapore. She was previously vice-president of global wealth management at Pimco. Bonnie Wan has been appointed vice-president for distribution marketing. Prior to joining Natixis, Wan held roles at UBS Asset Management and BNP Paribas Asset Management in Hong Kong and Singapore, Eastspring Investments in Singapore and BlackRock in Hong Kong.

Aberdeen Standard Investments has made a couple of appointments in Asia this month. Min Chow Sai joins as head of investment research for real estate in Asia, based in Singapore. This is a new role following the firm’s expansion of direct real estate business in the region. Sai will report to Andrew Allen, London-based global head of investment research for real estate. 

Sai previously worked at Nomura Securities in Singapore for more than a decade, most recently as executive director responsible for Singapore and regional listed real estate investment research. 

The firm has also appointed Ken Yajima as chief executive officer and representative director of its Japan business, based in Tokyo. Yajima succeeds Neil Slater, who has been appointed deputy head of private markets and global head of real estate. Yajima joins from Schroders where he had held a number of senior roles for 15 years, most recently as head of distribution for Schroders Japan. Prior to that, he was with JP Morgan for 15 years in senior positions including head of business initiatives management and head of institutional sales at the asset management group in Japan.

JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Rick Wei as head of insurance strategy for Asia ex-Japan, based in Hong Kong. Wei joins the firm from BNP Paribas Asset Management, where he was previously head of Asia insurance strategy. Prior to that, he spent four years as an associate director at MetLife Investments in Hong Kong.

HSBC Private Banking has made a number of senior hires to holster its investment services and product solutions group leadership team. Lina Lim is appointed as regional head of discretionary for Asia. She joins from JP Morgan Wealth Management, where she worked for more than 10 years in a number of roles, most recently spearheading the institutional wealth management’s discretionary business in Asia for family offices, endowments and foundations.

Rocky Cheung joins as head of investment counselling for mainland China and Taiwan. He was previously head of investment product and advisory for DBS Private Bank. Simon Hwang has been appointed as investment counselling team head for mainland China, joining from Citi Private Bank where he led the mainland China and Taiwan investment counselling teams.

The Bank for International Settlements has appointed Ravi Menon as chair of the BIS Asian Consultative Council, which serves as a vehicle for communication between central banks in the Asia-Pacific region and the BIS. Menon succeeds Veerathai Santiprabhob, governor of the Bank of Thailand, who has chaired the council since September 2017. Menon is the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The Financial Stability Board has appointed Ryozo Himino, vice-minister for international affairs at the Japanese Financial Services Agency, as chair of the FSB’s Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation for a two-year term starting on September 1, 2019. Himino succeeds Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, who has served as SRC chair since April 2017.