“Patrick pursued another career option in a different industry. We already have found a replacement with an experienced senior private banker who will head our private banking business in Singapore, starting in January,” a spokesperson for told this publication, but gave no further details.

Recently VP Bank has parted company with experienced private bankers including Ian Pollock, now head of North Asia for ABN AMRO Private Bank and former managing director for VP Bank (Singapore), Reto Isenring, who has since been installed as the Chief executive of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg’s Singapore branch.

The Liechtenstein headquartered bank had previously hired aggressively in both its Hong Kong and Singapore offices, recruiting seasoned private bankers from Clariden Leu, HSBC, Barclays and Julius Baer in an attempt to garner market share in the ultra-competitive offshore private banking space.

VP Bank's Asian business is represented by offices in Singapore and Hong Kong. Its other subsidiary companies with banking and asset management licences are in Switzerland, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands and Moscow.

Rajagopal Govindarajoo, who most recently served as executive director and head of operations at Chinatrust Commercial Bank in Singapore, took over as Singapore CEO at VP Bank on 1 September this year.