Speaking to finews.ch in Switzerland, the troubled Ticino based private bank, BSI sought to correct earlier reports concerning a recent Hong Kong promotion.
BSI said that Alberto Pasini has now been approved as CEO of the Hong Kong branch by the local authorities, and he has held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Hong Kong Branch since 1 January 2016.
Pasini took on the roles of Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of BSI Hong Kong Branch (and not BSI Asia as reported), the same responsibilities that were held by his predecessor Ciro Ahmad, who decided to leave the bank last year and will depart on March 31st.
Several Executive Roles
Before joining BSI in Hong Kong in January 2016, Pasini was the Head of the CEO Office Switzerland and had responsibility for strategic projects.
He has held several executive positions within the BSI Group including as Head of Front Unit at EOS Servizi Fiduciari in Milan and as Senior Project Manager in the integration projects of the acquisitions of Banca del Gottardo and Banca Unione di Credito by BSI.
Rarely Been Out of the News
BSI in Asia has rarely been out of the news over the past year. The recent announcement that CEO of BSI Asia and Member of the BSI Group Executive Board, Hanspeter Brunner had decided to retire was followed by the news that Yak Yew Chee, probably the most prominent and surely best paid employee at Swiss BSI Bank in Singapore, had also left the company
Yak Yew Chee's accounts were frozen by Singapore authorities in September 2015 and he has been questioned as part of the city-state's 1MDB inquiry in connection with possible money-laundering.
All of this activity has been set against the backdrop of the sale of BSI to Swiss based EFG International for 1.3 billion Swiss francs in a deal announced on February 21.
