Union Bancaire Privée Names Singapore Leader For Family Office Platform

Tom Burroughes

19 August 2014

has named the head of its new regional multi-family office platform in Singapore, this publication can confirm.

The Geneva-headquartered bank, which has offices in Asia, has appointed Joerg Hansen, formerly of DBS Private Bank, starting in the role from yesterday.

Other hires at the unit include Cheryl Ng, who also previously worked at DBS, and Ong lu-Jin, who is head of the multi-family office.

Among previous roles, Hansen covered ultra high net worth individuals at Bank of Singapore. Prior to joining that bank in 2012, he worked for Credit Suisse and Julius Baer.

This publication contacted DBS for further details, such as possible replacements. UBP declined to give further details.

With the family office market relatively young in Asia – and small – when compared with those of Europe and the US, the sector is seen as a lucrative one, given Asia’s traditionally family-run business sector and the fast-growth of wealthy individuals there.

UBP spoke to this publication about its Asia ambitions some time ago (see here); more recently, at the Swiss side of the bank, the firm spoke of how it believed its status as a standalone private bank gives it an edge over rival business models (see here).

The development of a MFO platform is also seen as a way such firms can continue to hold a slice of revenue from wealthy clients even when such persons prefer to create their own bespoke organisations. In that vein, other banks such as Lombard Odier have seen Asia’s independent asset management sector as a source of business (see an example here).