The Liechtenstein-headquartered group, which established the Hong Kong office in 2006, is pulling out of the Asian city, and said it will provide more detail on 20 August. The CEO and COO in the Hong Kong operation have left.

VP Bank is shutting its physical presence in Hong Kong to focus on Singapore, while Pamela Phua, chief executive and Heline Lam, chief operating officer, have decided to leave VP Bank in Hong Kong, the Liechtenstein-headquartered group confirmed to this publication.

“VP Bank is physically withdrawing from Hong Kong and focussing on the Singapore location. The Asia region, where VP Bank has recorded double-digit growth rates in the intermediaries’ business in recent years, remains important for our bank,” a statement from VP said.

The bank said the closure is part of measures on which more details will be given in an annual media conference on 20 August.

VP Bank said the office closure is not related to its relationship with China-based Hywin Wealth Management, in which it bought a 3.4 per cent stake in 2021. As reported here, in early July, the problems engulfing China’s debt-laden property development group Evergrande hit Hywin Holdings, a US-listed business. At the end of June, it announced that it was quitting the wealth management and asset management business and pivoting to the tech sector instead. Hywin told this news service in early July that some of its business entities, such as those in Hong Kong, were not affected. VP Bank said it did not distribute Hywin's real estate products.

“This [office closure] decision is not related to the co-operation with Hywin,” the bank said last Friday when asked about the matter.

Departures
Phua joined VP Bank in July 2021 after two years at Pictet as head of Asia family office. She worked at Julius Baer and Credit Suisse in their private banking units. Lam became COO in April this year after more than three years as chief of staff in Hong Kong.

VP Bank established its Hong Kong office in 2006. It launched its Singapore office in 2007 and received a banking licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore the following year.

On 17 May, VP Bank said its net profit for the first months of 2024 slumped by 50 per cent on a year earlier, and a “key reason for this is lower interest income.”

“After benefiting from the positive interest rate environment in the previous year, VP Bank’s interest income fell in the first four months of 2024, continuing a trend that began in the second half of 2023. This was due to the further shifting of client funds from current account balances to time deposits and securities that bear higher interest rates, a consequence of the changed interest rate environment,” it said. “This resulted in net profit for the first four months of 2024 that is 50 per cent lower compared with the previous-year period. Operating expenses fell slightly compared with the prior-year period. The net new money inflow currently stands at 1 per cent on an annualised basis.”