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.