VP Bank Closes Hong Kong Office; C-Suite Figures Depart

Tom Burroughes

19 August 2024

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.”