Julius Baer, the Swiss private
bank which counts Asia as its second home market, today announced the opening
of a representative office in Shanghai, China.

The bank has named former-Credit
Suisse executive Yan Sun as the chief representative officer. She reports
directly to Thomas Meier, chief executive of Asia and a member of the executive
board. Prior to joining Julius Baer in January 2011, Sun was the chief representative
of Credit Suisse investment bank’s Shanghai office. 

The bank said in a statement that Sun was instrumental in
the process to receive the representative license from the regulator, the China
Banking Regulatory Commission.

The role of the Shanghai representative office will be to
function as a business liaison between Julius Baer, local regulators and local
companies in China, to conduct market research into the wealth management
industry in China, to provide consultancy to the rest of the Julius Baer Group
in relation to the wealth management in China and to promote the brand within the region.

“We have long stated that China is a compelling market
with an abundance of wealth management opportunities. Our representative office
marks our first step to building a meaningful presence in this key global
wealth market. This move underscores our commitment to Asia, which is our
second home market after our home base Switzerland,” said Meier.

Julius Baer has been on the front foot in recent months in
its bid to grow market share in Asia. Last year the Hong Kong operation was
upgraded into a full bank branch and it also opened a Singapore Trust company
earlier this year. 

The bank joins a host of rivals like UBS, Credit Suisse and Sarasin who are hiring aggressively to tap Asia's growing millionaire pool, where the high net worth population hit 3.3 million this year overtaking that in Europe, according to Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. 

Fierce competition for top talent has resulted in high executive turnover rates. This month the bank confirmed chief financial officer of Asia and chief operating officer of North Asia, Ian Pollock, had quit after two years running the roles jointly, reported here. 

The bank named Frank Keller as CFO Asia and Tobias Murer as COO North Asia as of 1 January 2012, as his successors. Pollock is believed to be taking on a leadership role at a Singapore-based Swiss asset management firm.

Also about six months ago CEO of North Asia Andrea Benenati left to found an independent asset manager in Switzerland. For the last six months Meier had taken over Benenati's role on an interim basis and last month announced his successor. Kaven Leung, a 25-year private banking veteran from Goldman Sachs, will take over the role next year.