Barclays cuts in Asia
Barclays is cutting back on its European and Asian equities and investment banking arms in order to focus on the US, the UK and Africa.
The bank has made the decision after taking another look at the fee pool opportunities in Asia and Europe, according to Rich Ricci, CEO of corporate and investment banking, who spoke to Asiamoney PLUS’s sister publication Euroweek.
The headcount reduction in the corporate and investment bank totals 1,800 – out of 34,300 staff at the end of last year. Around 1,600 of these are from the investment bank, which has 24,000 staff.
BoA-Merrill in Apac GTS reshuffle
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoA-Merrill) has re-organised its global transaction services (GTS) business across Asia Pacific according to an internal memo from Ivo Distelbrink, head of Asia Pacific GTS, seen by Asiamoney PLUS.
Nirmal Khaderia has been appointed head of Asia Pacific corporate sales. Khaderia joined the bank in 2011 as head of India sales, before being named head of India GTS. Before working for BoA-Merrill he worked for Citibank in GTS regional sales. He will remain based in Mumbai in the near term before relocating to Hong Kong.
Stefan Leijdekkers will continue to run the regional corporate sales team, but will relocate from Hong Kong to Singapore. Both Khaderia and Leijdekkers will report to Percy Batliwalla, head of Asia Pacific sales.
Soumen Sircar is appointed head of Asia Pacific financial institution (FI) banks from his position as head of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in the region. Before joining BoA-Merrill he worked for J.P. Morgan, most recently as head of FI for India and South Asia.
Aziz Parvez who has been leading the FI product sales specialist team in the region has been appointed head of FI non-banks, Asia Pacific. Sircar and Parvez will also report to Batliwalla.
On the product management side, Es Venkat will join BoA-Merrill as the head of Asia Pacific payments and receivables, replacing Maria Mandler who relocated to Chicago earlier this year. He joins from Samba Financial Group and has also worked for Citibank in Mumbai, the UEA and New York.
He will be based in Hong Kong, reporting to Faisal Ameen, head of treasury management for Asia Pacific, Ather Williams, head of global payments and Rodney Gardner, head of global receivables.
Amit Sharma is appointed head of Asia Pacific eCommerce and channels. This is a new role. Sharma joined the firm in 2010 as head of treasury product solutioning for Asia Pacific. He will be based in Singapore and report to Faisal Ameen and Cindy Murray, global head of channels.
Janet Leung is appointed head of Asia Pacific product development. She joined the firm in 1986 and in her last role was the senior payables product manager in Asia Pacific. Before this she was responsible for change management and platform management. She will be based in Hong Kong and report to Ameen and to Doug McKinley, global head of product development.
Chua heads Apac trade services at Citi
Stephen Chua has been named regional trade services head for Asia Pacific at Citi Transaction Services. He will be based in Singapore. He will also be responsible for the trade product suite of the Bank Services Group in the region.
Chua has worked in consumer, corporate banking, corporate finance and debt restructuring for 25 years. He started working for Citi in 1990 in the consumer bank, working as a relationship manager.
Since then he has worked in a variety of positions including sales head of treasury and trade solutions in Singapore, as well as supply chain sales lead for the region. Most recently he was regional head for export letters of credit and financial institution trade.
De Bruijckere joins M&G Investments
M&G Investments has hired Marcel de Bruijckere as director of institutional business for Asia Pacific. He is responsible for the firm’s institutional client relationships in Asia, which include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies and foundations.
He joined the company in February and will be based in Singapore from mid-March, reporting to Andrew Hendry, managing director of M&G Asia.
De Bruijckere joins the firm from LGT Capital Management in Singapore, where he was head of Asian distribution. Before this he worked for 20 years at ABN Amro Asset Management in Amsterdam, Milan, Singapore and Hong Kong, covering fixed income portfolio management, institutional sales and business management.
His most recent position at the firm was CEO of Singapore and head of institutional sales for South and Southeast Asia.
Schroders hires senior strategist from BEA Union
Scott Lothian has joined Schroders as senior strategist for global strategic solutions. He moves to the role from BEA Union Investments, based in Hong Kong, where he has been head of multi-asset for the past four years.
Before this he was a senior consultant at Towers Watson based both in the UK and in Hong Kong. He will report to Lesley-Ann Morgan who was recently promoted to head of global strategic solutions. The team was previously led by Neil Walton.
Walton has now taken on the newly created role of head of the institutional business development group at Schroders.