ABN Amro hiring spree targets Asian private wealth
Dutch bank ABN Amro has hired 11 new specialist staff as it attempts to build out its business for high net worth individuals in Asia and the Middle East.
Based in Singapore and Hong Kong, the new staff will be part of the bank’s private banking arm. Seven of the new hires come from ANZ Bank in Singapore. The team is led by Bert Stegink, previously head of expeatriates and rest of the world clients at ANZ, and also includes Benoit Strappazon, Jos Kleijne, Horst Hagemann, Matt Clark, Pierre Valentin and Jerry Leng, who join in a variety of private banking and investment counselling roles.
Also joining the private bank’s Singapore office in newly created regional roles are Leong Khin Meng, as head of business process improvement, and Paul Jessup, as vice president within the business development team, who join from Standard Chartered Bank Singapore and ANZ Bank respectively.
In the Hong Kong office, Michael Pak and Alan Lam have also recently joined as investment counsellor and senior portfolio manager, equities for Asian discretionary portfolio management, from Goldman Sachs private wealth management and Bank Julius Baer, respectively.
ABN Amro is currently seeking to grow its assets under management in Asia. The bank launched its Asian discretionary portfolio management in November, which offers clients the option of investing some of their wealth in Asian initiatives.
According to figures released by Credit Suisse in October, there are currently 12,800 ultra-high net worth individuals with assets above $500 million in Asia Pacific countries excluding China and India. There are a further 4,700 ultra-high net worth individuals in China, a figure that places the country second only to the USA on the global rankings list. India has 1,550, Taiwan has 1,200 and Hong Kong has 1,100, according to the Credit Suisse statistics.
