Published by Asian Private Banker – 23rd January 2015
Singaporean private bank, Bank of Singapore, adds to its non-resident Indian (NRI) team, adding a former Coutts banker to its roster.
After almost two years with Coutts, Rohit Punjabi moves to Bank of Singapore as a senior wealth management director. Based in the Lion City, Punjabi reports to Nikhil Advani, who heads the NRI team in Singapore.
When contacted, a spokesperson from the bank confirmed the news.
Prior to this role Punjabi was part of the raft of new hires from Coutts towards the end of 2013 where he worked in the British bank’s NRI team. Previously, Punjabi worked as a private banker for the NRI segment at UBS Wealth Management where he managing high net worth and ultra-high net worth NRI relationships in Southeast Asia for almost six years. Punjabi has also worked for the likes of Deutsche Bank and Citibank as a relationship manager.
The hire comes as the industry grapples with the changing face of NRI banking in this region, especially with notable exits from the space. Nonetheless, the increasingly sophisticated and price-sensitive diaspora are growing in numbers and therefore present a lucrative opportunity for private banks. Reinforcing this sentiment, Bank of Singapore recently hired Vismal Bali from Coutts end of 2014, who joined the Singaporean lender as a director based in Hong Kong.
According to this publication, Bank of Singapore had 300 relationship managers as of 2013-end and its assets under management (AUM) currently stand at US$51 billion as of third quarter of 2014.
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