RBC Wealth Management has made two senior Singapore-based hires from ABN AMRO as it builds its emerging markets presence.

RBC Wealth Management has named Samir Dewan as chief operating officer and head of business development for the emerging markets, a Singapore-based role in which he will oversee strategy, operations, overall business management and strategic initiatives for this side of the business.

In his new role Dewan reports to Barend Janssens, the Canadian bank’s head of emerging markets, and Ingrid Versnel, global head of operations and technology. Dewan will also join the operating committee for RBC Wealth Management Emerging Markets, the firm said in a statement today.

Dewan joins RBC Wealth Management from ABN AMRO, where he had been chief financial officer and chief operating officer for private banking in Asia. Earlier in his career he worked for Bank of America and ANZ.

Also joining RBC Wealth Management from ABN AMRO Private Banking is Amit Parmanand, who has been named manager of strategic initiatives for the emerging markets business. He will also be based in Singapore, reporting to Dewan.

The double hire closely follows that of Andrew Turczyniak, who at the start of August was appointed head of wealth management for Asia. Turczyniak, who was latterly chief executive, Hong Kong, for RBC Capital Markets, also reports to Janssens in his new position.

At the end of August RBC reported that, for the third quarter, wealth management net income had dropped by C$6 million (around $6.1 million) year-over-year to C$179 million. Meanwhile, revenue from wealth management actually rose by C$111 million year-over-year, to C$1.16 billion, but fell by C$56 million on a consecutive basis.

The firm said that excluding certain accounting and tax adjustments, net income at the division was up by C$32 million, or 22 per cent, from the prior year, and down by only C$6 million, or 3 per cent, from the previous quarter. These fluctuations were due to higher average fee-based client assets than for the comparable period in 2010, and lower transaction volumes when compared with the previous quarter in 2011 due to difficult market conditions, especially towards the end of the quarter.

The dip in net income from wealth management, which was also down by C$41 million on a linked-quarter basis, came as the overall bank reported a net loss of C$92 million for the quarter. However, these results were driven by a loss of C$1.57 billion due to the sale of the firm's US regional retail banking operations, comprised mostly of C$1.3 billion of goodwill and intangibles, now classified as discontinued operations, RBC said.