Paul Scibetta, Asia chief executive at JP Morgan Private Bank since 2007, is to relinquish his post to Andrew Cohen who is currently head of the Southern California business.
As CEO of the firm's Asia-Pacific ultra-high-net-worth business, Cohen will report to Douglas Wurth, Hong Kong-based CEO of JP Morgan International Private Bank. Wurth runs the global ex-US private-banking business, having relocated from New York late last year.
Cohen will transfer from Los Angeles around September, when Scibetta will take up another senior post within the firm, says a source familiar with the situation.
The second member of top management to be brought into the region from the US in the space of a few months may raise a few eyebrows, but JP Morgan is not the only bank to have recently moved senior staff from its home market.
HSBC Private Bank relocated Nancie Dupier, formerly New York-based head of the Americas, to Asia as Singapore chief executive. And RBS Coutts moved Nick Pollard and Nick Cringle to Hong Kong from London in recent months as Asia CEO and Asia co-chief investment officer respectively.
Moreover, Cohen has significant international experience, although not specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. Before his four years in Los Angeles, he spent time in Geneva and London, led JP Morgan's private banking business in Germany and managed the firm's emerging-market efforts in Turkey and Israel.
JP Morgan PB is keen to highlight Cohen's "consistent track record of significantly growing diverse markets throughout his career -- whether onshore or offshore, small or large, emerging or mature, European or American".
His predecessor, Scibetta, is also a veteran of the firm, having joined in 1998. He has been Asia CEO since 2007, and before moving to Hong Kong to take up that post, Scibetta served as CEO of the private bank's high-net-worth business in the US from 2006-2007. He has also worked for JP Morgan in London and Tokyo, for both the private bank and the asset management unit.
Before joining JP Morgan Asset Management, Scibetta worked as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton in New York and Tokyo from 1992-1997.
"This appointment marks the end of another successful chapter within the firm for Paul," says Wurth. "Paul has led a transformation of the Asia private bank while navigating some of the most volatile markets, producing record quality flows, record new clients, and significant year-over-year growth. He has left quite a legacy."
JP Morgan PB is placing a big emphasis on the Asia-Pacific private wealth market, which represents around $9.5 trillion in assets and is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. A quarter of the world's ultra-high-net-worth individuals reside in Asia.
