While the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is actively trying to find a buyer for its retail and commercial assets in Asia, the Scottish bank is also making appointments in the region. Yesterday it announced six appointments to its Asian equities team including a new head of equity sales in Taiwan, a head of equity derivatives strategy, and a head of regional insurance research.
"These hires clearly showcase the commitment we have to Asia, and are part of an integrated strategy to increase the scale of our equities business," said Peter Irvine, head of equities Asia-Pacific.
Kevin Chang becomes the head of equity derivatives strategy. He will be responsible for finding equity derivative opportunities for the bank's client base, such as hedge funds and other asset managers. Chang has worked at Barclays Global Investors where he was head of European active equities strategy, and at Credit Suisse, where he was global head of equity derivative solutions. He will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Shane Edwards, the global head of equity derivatives structuring.
Before his banking career, Chang worked as an academic at University of Southern California (Marshall), New York University (Stern) and University of Pennsylvania (Wharton). He has a PhD in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an AB in Economics from Harvard.
Darwin Lam will become head of regional insurance research, which includes coverage of insurers in China and Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong's banks and the Hong Kong exchange. He joins from Goldman Sachs, where he worked from 2000 to 2008 as an executive director conducting research on Asia-Pacific financials. He will report to Sally Ng, the regional head of research for Asian financials.
The headcount for the regional sales team will increase by three. Daniel O'Shea will become the head of equity sales in Taiwan. He has worked in similar roles for Deutsche Bank, CLSA, Lehman Brothers and ING Baring in locations such as New York, London and Hong Kong. Coming over from UBS, Garett Lim becomes the senior regional sales account manager. Rohit Salgaocar takes on the role of senior regional sales trader.
The final hire is Luke Pisano who becomes director, equity execution services Asia, which makes him responsible for helping expand the Asia execution services business. His last job was at Macquarie where he managed the Asian program trading desk.
Yesterday there were reports that the Asian retail and commercial assets of RBS were to be split between Standard Chartered and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ). Standard Chartered is expected to pick up the ailing banks assets in China, India and Malaysia; while ANZ is looking to get its assets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam. The deal has yet to be finalised.
