ABN AMRO Private Bank has appointed 30-year industry veteran, Ian Pollock, as head of its North Asia team, following a raft of changes to the bank's global research and strategy offering.

As a member of the Asia and Middle East private banking - and the Hong Kong country - management teams, Pollock will be responsible for running and further developing the private banking business in North Asia. His postion will be Hong Kong based and effective as of 13 May 2013, ABN AMRO said in a statement yesterday.

Most recently, Pollock was chief executive for VP Bank in Asia and he has previously held various senior regional management positions, including as deputy CEO, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, with names such as Julius Baer, HSBC Private Bank and Republic National Bank of New York.

“His extensive experience in the wealth management industry and intimate knowledge of the region make him the ideal person to drive the continued growth of our North Asia business,” said Hugues Delcourt, chief executive of ABN AMRO Private Banking, Asia and Middle East.

Pollock succeeds Arjan de Boer, who led ABN AMRO's private banking business in North Asia for the past three years. Having been part of the bank's senior management in the region since late 2005, de Boer will now pursue a new senior opportunity within ABN AMRO’s global organisation, the details of which have yet to be revealed, the bank said.

Changes

Earlier this week WealthBriefingAsia exclusivley revealed that ABN AMRO Private Banking made a raft of changes to its research and strategy offering.

As of this month, ABN AMRO Private Banking will use Morningstar for equity research on individual global large-cap stocks. The aim of this is to strengthen the range, depth, consistency and frequency of the firm's equity research for clients by providing timely coverage on over 600 global stocks, it said.

“These changes will allow newly-defined equity experts in research and strategy to further concentrate our focus on specialist areas where we can truly add value for our private banking clients: advice on their strategic, tactical positioning for equities and also on thematic based research,” the firm said.

As part of the changes, ABN AMRO Private Banking has also expanded its in-house fixed income research coverage of non-government bonds - particularly in low investment-grade and emerging market credit (notably Asian issuers), it said.