The widely-respected head of Julius Baer's business in India has left the Swiss bank. He is being replaced with a Merrill Lynch veteran.
Atul Singh, who has run Zurich-based Julius Baer's business in India for nearly two years, «has decided to take on a new challenge outside the bank,» the firm said in a statement on Monday.
The veteran India banker was a key player in the integration of acquisition Merrill Lynch in India, which makes for roughly 10 percent of assets managed in Asia. Singh also established Julius Baer's private wealth management platform for wealthy Indians.
Singh spent seven years as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton before in 2006 joining Merrill Lynch, which was bought by Julius Baer five years ago.
Internal Replacement
The bank said it will replace Singh with Ashish Gumashta (pictured below), effective immediately. Gumashta is also a Merrill veteran, and was named a managing director in 2006.
Julius Baer is one of the few foreign private banks left in India, as scores of banks such as HSBC have shut down their domestic operations for lack of profitability.
Gumastha will focus on Julius Baer's domestic business and report to Remy Bersier, a long-time Swiss banker who moved to Dubai from Geneva last summer as the bank's head of emerging markets.
«I welcome Ashish to take on the responsibility of driving our business to its next level of growth,» Bersier said, who also thanked Singh in the statement.
