Published by Asian Investor – 24th January 2017
The asset manager’s head of insurance relationships has left and will not be replaced, amid a tough environment for the industry.
Eastspring Investments’ former head of insurance relationship, Andy Yang, left the firm last month and is looking for a new position, AsianInvestor has learned.
He will not be replaced, said a spokeswoman for Eastspring, the $140 billion Asian asset management arm of UK insurer Prudential.
Cutbacks are increasingly in evidence across the the region’s investment sector as firms seeks to retrench in the face of growing cost pressures. For example, two Swiss asset and wealth managers, Edmond de Rothschild and Syz, have recently closed offices in Hong Kong.
When it comes to his next destination, Yang told AsianInvestor: “It would be my preference to work in insurance asset management, but I don’t believe there are many of these roles available. So I’m open to broader roles, e.g. in investment management and risk management.”
Yang had been on the life partner team, part of the company’s product and partnerships function, which is led by Xavier Meyer, AsiaPacific head of product strategy and development.
Yang had overseen all aspects of Eastspring’s relationships with Prudential’s insurance businesses across Asia. As of mid2014, of Eastspring’s then $105 billion in AUM, it managed $58 billion on behalf of Prudential’s Asian life insurance businesses and $8.1 billion for the rest of the Prudential Group.
There had previously been a team looking after this relationship, but the responsibilities were coordinated under Yang. He had also been tasked with driving broader engagement with the firm’s insurance clients.
Yang had joined Eastspring in June 2014 from FWD Insurance, formerly ING’s Hong Kong insurance unit, where he was group head of investment and assetliability management.
Before that, Yang spent some nine years in senior roles at ING Investment Management. These included head of investment process and business management for Asia, chief investment officer of the multiasset division of ING Investment Korea and CIO of ING Life Taiwan.
He has also held roles with financial services organisations in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand, including US fund manager Invesco and Bankers Trust.
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