The investment house has appoined a former Monetary Authority of Singapore senior figure to its ranks.

Investment house Neuberger Berman has joined some other wealth manager firms in recruiting a former central banker.

Neuberger Berman has appointed Kent Chen to managing director and leader of its private equity efforts in the Asia-Pacific region. The role has been freshly created, the company said in a statement.

Chen, based from Hong Kong, will advise local clients and lead the firm’s regional efforts investing in global private equity across a wide spectrum of strategies, it said.

Chen previously worked at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority; he held various positions including deputy chief representative of the HKMA’s New York office and has also been advisor to the executive director for China at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. From 2008, Chen helped to establish the HKMA’s private equity programme, comprising global buyout, Asia private equity and global energy investments. Before joining the HKMA in 1998, Chen was head of China research at Daiwa Securities in Hong Kong, covering the Chinese stock market with a focus on infrastructure, energy and power equipment stocks.

Recently, private equity titan KKR recruited a former deputy governor of India’s central bank to its ranks, holding the post of industry advisor. Anand Sinha held his deputy governor post at the Reserve Bank of India from January 2011 to January 2014, capping a 37-year career at the institution. His role included regulation of commercial banks and non-banking institutions.

The biggest-name from central banking to have joined an investment house in recent weeks is undoubtedly that of former US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who now has a consultancy role with PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income manager.