Westpac Banking, Australia's second largest lender, is ramping up its presence in Hong Kong with four new hires.
The bank has appointed Alex Tam as head of corporate and institutional banking for Hong Kong and Steven Yu as head of trade sales for North Asia. At Westpac, corporate and institutional banking refers to servicing corporate and FIG clients for a range of products including forex, cash management and debt capital markets
Westpac’s head of greater China, Andrew Whitford, will also move from Shanghai to assume responsibility as chief executive for the Hong Kong branch, in addition to his existing responsibilities. Last year, Martin Goodacre also relocated from Singapore to Hong Kong to take up a role as head of financial markets for Hong Kong.
“These appointments reflect our continued commitment to Asia,” said Bala Swaminathan, general manager, Westpac Asia. “Greater China is a major component of Westpac’s Asia growth strategy and Hong Kong is a key part of this,” he added in a release.
These moves follow the recent expansion of Westpac’s Hong Kong office, which includes an enhanced dealing room to support its growing customer activity and renminbi business. Westpac was granted market maker status to directly trade renminbi and Australian dollars in 2013.
Tam joined Westpac from HSBC and will lead the corporate and institutional banking team for Westpac in Hong Kong. He has more than 20 years experience with HSBC, including 15 years in Hong Kong and his previous role was regional head of business development Asia-Pacific, global trade and receivables finance at HSBC, where he was responsible for leading a team across 19 markets in Asia Pacific.
Yu joins Westpac from Deutsche Bank and will have overall responsibility for trade sales in North Asia including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. He has more than 20 years regional experience and was most recently head of trade finance and cash management corporates at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong.
Australian banks such as ANZ and Westpac have been making a push into Asia to drive profits in recent years.
