People Moves
Exclusive: Julius Baer Executive Resurfaces At Bank Of Singapore
Veteran private banker Pauline Chung has started as market head of Greater China at Bank of Singapore, becoming the latest senior departure from Switzerland’s Julius Baer.
Veteran private banker Pauline Chung has joined Bank of Singapore as market head of Greater China, becoming the latest senior departure from Switzerland’s Julius Baer.
Chung started her new role today at OCBC-owned Bank of Singapore, where her full title is head of strategy, managing director and market head of Greater China. Her first day coincided with the bank’s annual media lunch, where she hosted journalists with her colleagues Sermon Kwan, head of Greater China and chief executive of the Hong Kong branch, and Yelandur N. Nagendra, managing director and global head of the India Sub-Continent.
She joins the private bank at a relatively early stage after it was born out of the merger of ING Asia Private Bank with OCBC Private Bank last year. BoS has over 800 employees including 240 relationship managers, and $37 billion of earning asset based as of June 2011, which it grew from nearly $27 billion from 2009.
Chung has a quarter century of experience in Asia wealth management and has also worked at HSBC Private Bank and UBS in Hong Kong.
Before joining Bank of Singapore she was managing director and market head of China with Julius Baer in Hong Kong. She was a founding member of the bank’s China team.
Senior turnover in Julius Baer’s Asia business, which the bank considers its second home market, has been high in recent months.
Last month the bank named a new chief financial officer for Asia and a new chief operating officer for North Asia, replacing Ian Pollock, who quit after two years running the roles jointly, WealthBriefingAsia reported here. He is reportedly joining the Singapore-arm of Liechtenstein boutique VP Bank as Asia chief executive.
The Swiss private bank internally promoted Frank Keller as CFO Asia and Tobias Murer as COO North Asia to succeed Pollock. The rejig came after the bank's CEO for North Asia, Andrea Benenati, left this year to found an independent asset manager in Switzerland. He will be replaced by Kaven Leung, a 25-year private banking veteran from Goldman Sachs, next year.
