The Netherlands-headquartered banking group has named a new head of private banking for Asia and the Middle East.

ABN AMRO, the Netherlands-headquartered bank, has appointed Hans Hanegraaf as its country executive for Singapore and head of private banking for Asia and the Middle East. He takes the helm from Hugues Delcourt, who is leaving the bank at the end of September to take on “an important leadership position elsewhere in the financial sector”, it said. The bank gave no further details on his plans.

“Hans has extensive experience in various commercial and management positions in both international and domestic markets, providing him with the seniority and broad banking experience needed to lead ABN AMRO in this important region,” Jeroen Rijpkema, chief executive of ABN AMRO Private Banking International, said in a statement today that gave few other details about Hanegraaf’s past career. According to a Bloomberg Businessweek directory, Hanegraaf “serves as senior managing director of business banking at ABN AMRO Group”.

Commenting on Delcourt, Rijpkema said: “During his tenure with ABN AMRO, Hugues has successfully positioned ABN AMRO Singapore and expanded our Private Banking activities in Asia and Middle East.”

Last month, the private banking arm of ABN AMRO said assets under management rose by €5.8 billion ($7.7 billion) to €176.4 billion at the end of June this year compared with end-2013, mainly driven by net inflows and stronger markets.

This part of the bank logged an underlying profit of €40 million in the second quarter of the year, a year-on-year fall of 11 per cent; it fell 21 per cent from the previous quarter.

The fall in underlying profit was caused by a “very low tax rate” in the second quarter of last year, the bank said. Operating results and impairments were unchanged.