Singapore-based DBS has appointed Lawrence Lua, formerly of Julius Baer,as the head of its private banking business in Southeast Asia.

Singapore-based DBS has appointed Lawrence Lua, formerly of Julius Baer, as the head of its private banking business in Southeast Asia.

Lua, who holds the post of managing director, joins the firm on 1 April, DBS said in a statement.

Southeast Asia accounts for about half of DBS Private Bank’s business, the bank said. At DBS, Lua will oversee over 100 employees from Singapore-based private banking teams for Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as their support staff. Lua will report to Tan Su Shan, group head of wealth management.

At Julius Baer, Lua headed a senior client banker team and was co-head of the product committee and legal and compliance committee for Singapore. He was also involved in the setting up of the bank’s "advisory excellence" framework for Asia, which is intended to foster a better understanding of clients’ goals, assess their risk profile and determine the appropriate investment solutions.
 
Prior to Julius Baer, Lua was managing director of investments at Merrill Lynch, managing the portfolios of top-tier clients in Southeast Asia. Between 1991 and 1999, he also worked at Citibank, where he was appointed as the global market manager and country head for Citibank Private Bank Singapore.

"The growing wealth in the region presents huge opportunities for us and recently we made several appointments that will help to further bolster our capabilities and add depth of experience to the team," said Tan Su Shan, group head of wealth management at DBS.

DBS’s appointment is the latest in a line of moves by Western and domestic Asian banks to expand their private banker headcount. At the start of this week, Barclays Wealth announced 12 senior appointments in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example.