Kanwal was one of four new regional chiefs appointed by Bill Winters, group CEO, in a new corporate structure last year. Reports said he was credited with steadying some of the bank's operations in the region.

Former DBS Private Bank director Angeline Chong joined UOB Private Bank as executive director, market head for Singapore. Chong had been at DBS Private Bank from October 2010.

Friends Provident International appointed Kevin Stone as regional sales director, based in Singapore. 

Stone, who reports to Andrew Waddell, leads the sales function and oversees all key strategic relationships with intermediaries including independent financial advisors, international brokers, banks and third party distributors in Singapore. Previously, Stone was managing director of Charter Financial Planning, Australia’s second-largest financial advisory firm. He has held senior roles at AXA, both in the UK and Australia, and AMP.

Amanda Chen, deputy head of wealth management at Nomura for Asia ex-Japan for almost the past two years, left the bank. She had reported into Nobuhiro Sano, head of wealth management, Asia ex-Japan, who remains with the bank. Chen, who was brought in by the Japanese banking giant from Morgan Stanley, took up the role in January 2015. At Morgan Stanley, she was most recently managing director, private wealth management; she was at the US firm from 2002 to September 2014, holding a variety of roles in Singapore and Hong Kong.

As part of the change, Johnny Heng, who has been chief investment officer for wealth management in Asia ex-Japan, took the role of head of relationship management at the wealth unit, and Shinichi Tamai, chief financial officer, will take on additional responsibilities as chief of staff, wealth management, Asia ex-Japan. There will be no direct replacement for Chen, and Heng reports to Sano. Heng’s old CIO role was split, with Vincent Ng working as joint-CIO from Hong Kong, and Tong Yew Sng as joint-CIO in Singapore.  

Bank J Safra Sarasin appointed former VP Bank Singapore senior manager Peter Bühler as a managing director. He took on a new role at the firm as head of external asset managers and intermediaries, Asia. In this role, Bühler reports to Benedikt Maissen, chief executive, Singapore. He is based at the firm's Singapore Branch. In April, the bank appointed Maissen as CEO, taking over from Eric Morin, who last year joined another Switzerland-based private bank, Union Bancaire Privee, to head up its Asian operations.

UBS Wealth Management appointed Michael Christo as a desk head within its Hong Kong domestic Kowloon team. Previously, Christo was head of the firm's portfolio specialist team in Hong Kong, where he was responsible for marketing the investments, products and services platform to its clients in Greater China. He has been with UBS since 2005.

Withers, the international law firm, hired Asia-focused corporate finance specialist Azlinda Ariffin-Boromand as partner in its London office. She previously worked at Olswang. She has also previously worked at Fasken Martineau and qualified as a barrister. 

BlackRock appointed Tom Keenan as head of private banks and wealth distribution for Asia excluding Japan. Keenan has been with BlackRock since 2009 and most recently served as the firm’s head of private bank distribution for Singapore. Before that, he was head of exchange-traded fund specialists for Asia excluding Japan. He is based in Singapore. Keenan replaced Tan Yuan Kueh, who left BlackRock in late September.

BNY Mellon Investment Management appointed Chris Tse as head of intermediary distribution, Hong Kong. The role was a newly-created one. Previously, Tse spent five years as director and regional head of business development within the firm’s Asia division, where he was responsible for leading a team and driving growth across the region. 

Fullerton Fund Management appointed Patrick Yeo as chief investment officer, based in Singapore, in addition to his existing role as fixed income head. Yeo joined Fullerton in 2005, and has more than 26 years of investment experience in the areas of fixed income, currency management and interest rate trading. The previous chief executive and CIO was Manraj Sekhon, who left the firm.

Pinebridge Investments, a global asset manager, appointed Jennifer Theunissen to a new role as chief operating officer for Asia. She is based in Hong Kong and reports to global chief operating officer Julian Sluyters and Asia chief executive Rajeev Mittal. Theunissen has more than 18 years of experience in financial services, 11 of which have been spent in Asia. She most recently worked at Deutsche Asset Management in Hong Kong, where she served as its chief operating officer for asset management.

Credit Suisse appointed Rick Meng as managing director and head of private banking, China. Meng has more than 17 years of financial services industry experience across China, Hong Kong and the US. Most recently, he was head of corporate coverage, China, and Shanghai branch manager for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Eastspring Investments, the $140 billion Asian investment management arm of Prudential Corporation Asia, appointed a former equities chief investment officer at PIMCO as its new CIO. The appointee, Virgini Maisonneuve, reports to chief executive Guy Strapp. Strapp was previously CIO; he stood down from that role to focus on leading the expanded business.

Schroders appointed Sok Mun Wong to the newly-created role of head of fixed income and foreign exchange trading for Asia. She joined from Tudor Capital, where she was a trader and head of the Singapore execution team for the past two years. She is based in Singapore.

UBS appointed Mischa Eckart as its new head of client investment specialists (CIS) in Asia-Pacific, replacing Sean Cochran, who served as global head of ultra-high net worth CIS. Cochran relocated to Switzerland. Evelyn Yeo was appointed to succeed Eckart as head of sales and content distribution for APAC within the bank’s investment products and services distribution management (IPS DM) unit.

Hawksford named a new chief executive, Michel van Leeuwen. He took the helm from Michael Powell, who was acting CEO. Van Leeuwen moved to Jersey. Van Leeuwen held a number of leadership roles at firms such as Cordium and Microsoft Capital Markets. Prior to joining Hawksford, van Leeuwen was group CEO of Cordium, a provider of regulatory compliance consulting services to the asset management and securities industry. Powell, a founding member of the team that performed the management buyout from Rathbones in 2008, continues to focus on delivering his expertise to Hawksford’s clients while remaining a director and member of the board.

Julius Baer appointed Luigi Vignola as global head of structured products, replacing Philipp Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker, who was in charge of structured products for almost seven years, was recently appointed as the bank’s head of advisory solutions and member of the executive board. Vignola joined Julius Baer in 2009 and held positions including head of markets, Asia. From 2014 he has been additionally in charge of markets and advisory solutions in Asia.

IRESS appointed Coran Lill to the new role of group executive for communications and marketing. Lill has a background as a corporate lawyer, business journalist and communications consultant. He most recently consulted to a range of fund managers, banks, insurers and dealer groups as well as to technology companies, including IRESS. Previously, he led the media regulations team at BT Financial Group for years and worked for a public relations agency for communications and marketing. He is based in Sydney.

ABN AMRO appointed Kees van Dijkhuizen, its chief financial officer, as chief executive. He replaced Gerrit Zalm. In September, the bank announced that Zalm, who had been CEO since 2009, did not want to complete his term of office, which expires in May 2018. Van Dijkhuizen joined ABN AMRO in 2013, having previously spent eight years as CFO of NIBC Bank. 

Bank J Safra Sarasin appointed Sutarmin Lili as a managing director, client advisory. Lili has more than 25 years of experience in the industry. He previously worked at Julius Baer, Singapore, where he was a managing director from 2010. He joined Julius Baer from UBS. He is based in Singapore and reports to Benedikt Maissen, CEO, Singapore.

Old Mutual International, part of Old Mutual Wealth, appointed former Friends Provident International senior manager Ivy Lee as head of business development for the Hong Kong domestic market. At FPI, Lee was regional sales manager. She has almost 20 years of industry experience in the domestic market; previous employers include Sun Life, Prudential and HSBC.

Fidelity International appointed Ben Waterhouse, who previously led its wholesale sales business in the UK, to a leadership role in Asia. Waterhouse was named head of intermediary business, Southeast Asia and Middle East, and country head in Singapore. He reports to Daisy Ho, MD, Asia ex-Japan. She was appointed to that newly-created role in October. Waterhouse joined Fidelity in August 2010.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which is selling its Asian wealth and retail banking operations, appointed a new group executive for technology, as part of a set of changes that saw Scott Collary, chief information officer, leave the firm. The bank appointed Gerard Florian to the post, reporting to Shayne Elliott, ANZ’s chief executive. Florian previously worked at Dimension Data, where he was chief strategy officer for the global cloud business unit. Among other roles, Florian was chief technology officer and chief marketing officer for Dimension Data’s Australian division. He is based in Sydney.

Vincent Ming, sector market leader, Greater China in Singapore for Credit Suisse, resigned. He was at the bank for 10 years.

International law firm Carey Olsen recruited partner Antony McKenzie to its Singapore team, relocating him from the firm's office in the Cayman Islands. He has been a partner at Carey Olsen since 2012.

HSBC Private Bank appointed Shang-Wei Chow as a market head, domestic (Singapore) team. Chow has 15 years of experience managing client relationships and wealth portfolios in Asia. Prior to joining the bank, Chow was executive director, wealth management at UBS, Singapore. He reports to Sandeep Sharma, head of HSBC Private Bank, South East Asia.

Bank of East Asia (China) appointed Cartier Lam Chi-man as executive director and chief executive. The role was previously held by Kwan Tat-cheong, who took up a new position as senior advisor to BEA China. Lam has experience in the banking industry and of mainland China’s financial markets due to his 20 years of experience working at BEA. Prior to this appointment, Lam was deputy CEO of BEA China. 

Quantifeed, which provides digital wealth management solutions in Asia, appointed Audrey Wong to the combined role of chief operating and financial officer. The firm also made other senior hires in the region, bringing in several figures from Merrill Lynch. The firm is based in Hong Kong. Wong was previously at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she was COO of Asia-Pacific equities in Hong Kong.

Northern Trust appointed Hong Kong-based Caroline Higgins as head of its global funds services in Asia. Higgins joined from Brown Brothers Harriman, where she was head of transfer agency for Asia. She has 25 years’ industry experience in the fund servicing sector.

JP Morgan Asset Management appointed Kenneth Tsang to the newly-created role of managing director and head of research and strategy for real estate in Asia-Pacific. Previously, Tsang held the role of managing director at US-based RED Capital.