Less than four months after the exit of single ex-market head of Singapore and Malaysia, HSBC Private Banking promotes two internally to head the respective markets.
HSBC Private Banking named Ken Ng as market head for Singapore and Gary Goh as market head for Malaysia, replacing the former dual-head Chow Shang-Wei who resigned earlier this year after a four-year stint, according to a statement.
Ng is an HSBC veteran, joining the British lender in 1995 with experience across wealth management, corporate banking and risk. He joined the private banking arm in 2014 and was previously a desk head.
Goh has 23 years of experience the financial industry and joined HSBC Private Banking in 2019 from Standard Chartered Private Bank where he headed the Singapore market. Previously, had also worked at UBS Wealth Management, as a desk head for its Chinese entrepreneur segment, as well as at Credit Suisse and Citigroup.
Double Singapore by 2024
Although the bank is running an accelerated global overhaul which includes 35,000 job cuts, it remains in growth mode in Asia especially following a restructuring that created a $1.4 trillion wealth and personal banking unit. The unit has set various expansion targets, including up to 3,000 hires by 2024 in its Guangzhou and Shanghai offices.
In the latest duo appointments, the bank added that it would seek to double its Singapore wealth and personal banking unit over five years as part of its «efforts to cement Singapore’s role as a prime international wealth center».
«Southeast Asia is home to some of the fastest-growing economies spurring a next generation of wealthy entrepreneurs,» said Philip Kunz, Southeast Asia head of global private banking. «Singapore and Malaysia sit at the nexus as many entrepreneurs look to expand regionally.»
PB Growth Drive
In the last 12 months, HSBC has been actively rostering senior positions in its private bank with a string of hires and internal appointments.
Last month, the private bank promoted another duo – Jeffrey Yap and Adam Lau – as Southeast Asia head of investment services and product solutions and the newly created role of APAC head of market solutions, respectively. It also expanded to its Greater China product and investment teams in late 2019 with the addition of Lina Lim, ex-J.P. Morgan; Rocky Cheung, ex-DBS; and Simon Hwang, ex-Citi.
Other senior moves included the hire of ex-Deutsche exec Lavanya Chari as the global head of products, investment and collaboration; ex-J.P. Morgan exec Sharon Oh as chief operating officer; and the appointment of Cynthia Lee as APAC head of private wealth solutions.
