Published by eFinancial Careers – 11th May 2018
Standard Chartered has made two senior hires in wealth management ‘transformation’ in Asia, as it continues its efforts to bolster its private bank.
Last month, Claudia Loh joined as an executive director in Singapore and Samuel Chang came on board as a director in Hong Kong. Both now work in work in wealth transformation, according to their public profiles.
The hires come as Stan Chart pushes ahead with plans to rebuild its wealth-management franchise under the leadership of Singapore-based Didier von Daeniken, who joined from Barclays in 2016.
Stan Chart’s wealth business still lacks scale – it only ranked as the 14th largest private bank in Asia by assets in 2017. Still, Asia helped income in the firm’s private banking division increase 23% year on year in the first quarter to $144m. Stan Chart’s latest financial results state that it attracted “new senior relationship managers” in Q1 and gathered more than $700m in net new money.
The recruitment of Loh and Chang, neither of whom are RMs, however, suggest that Stan Chart isn’t only hiring for its front office. It also wants more people to lead the ‘transformation’ of its private banking products and services.
Stan Chart has already begun an operational and technology overhaul of its private bank. In 2006, for example, it deployed a standard wealth management platform across more than 30 countries. It has rolled out other digital initiatives in wealth since then, including launching new investment tools for relationship managers last year.
Chang comes from a largely tech background and spent the previous two years leading an AI-focused fintech firm. Prior to that, he was at HSBC in Hong Kong for more than six years, initially as a senior manager in wealth management business transformation, leading projects within ‘wealthtech’. He became senior manager of investment products at HSBC in 2013. Chang was at UBS between 2004 and 2009, latterly as head of IT product delivery.
Loh was at Scandinavian bank Nordea for six and a half years, latterly as deputy general manager and head of operations for Singapore, before joining Stan Chart. Her other roles include head of prime brokerage global services at RBS, where she worked from 2007 to 2009.
