People Moves

EFG Hires South Asia Head In Singapore

Jackie Bennion Deputy Editor 3 October 2019

EFG Hires South Asia Head In Singapore

The Zurich-listed bank keeps up the hiring pace as Asian private wealth accumulates.

With sights on growing its private client business in Asia, EFG Bank has appointed Manoj Ramarao as head of global for South Asia and managing director. He will join the bank in Singapore and report to EFG deputy chief executive officer and head of private banking in Singapore, Oliver Balmelli.

Ramarao joins after having been in a number of senior posts at Bank of Singapore, where he was most recently team head for subcontinent and NRI South East Asia. He and Balmelli will work closely together to grow the team and business activities in the region, the Swiss bank said. Like its regional rivals, EFG has been hiring aggressively to target the accelerating growth in Asian HNWIs and booming entrepreneurship. The bank reported assets under management in Asia at around US$30 billion for the first half of 2019, following its majority stake in Australian financial service firm Shaw and Partners.

The Singapore appointments come soon after the bank brought in a prominent former banking executive in Hong Kong to chair its Asia-Pacific advisory board. Amy Yip succeeded Fong Seng Tee in the role in August with the task of expanding the Zurich-listed lender’s offering in Asia. She is working alongside the board of directors, the Asia-Pacific executive chairman, Albert Chiu, and his regional management team.

In another notable announcement in June, the group hired finance veteran Angela Bow from Swiss rival Julius Baer to become deputy head of Asia Pacific in a newly-created post.

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