| Singapore | 6 June 2017 | Asia Samachar |
Harjeet Singh moves from BNP Paribas to Bank of Singapore (BoS) at a time when the latter’s CEO is said to be mulling running for the republic’s presidency.
Harjeet, a Singapore-based managing director at BNP Paribas, assumes a similar position at BoS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank, in what is seen as part of the firm’s push to grow its headcount in wealth management.
The banker had served just under two years at the French bank’s wealth management division. Prior to BNP Paribas, he spent a total of seven years, also in Singapore, at Barclasy and JP Morgan, according to his online profile.
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Harjeet makes an entry into the Singapore wealth management outfit at a time when BoS CEO Bahren Shaari was reported to be mulling running for the Singapore presidency.
At BoS, Harjeet now leads a team covering non-resident Indians (NRI) and manages a book of his own NRI clients, reports Efinancial Careers, quoted an unnamed private banking headhunter. At BNP Paribas, Harjeet was a team head and a senior banker for NRI in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
BoS was established after OCBC acquired ING Asia Private Bank in 2010 and merged it with its private banking services.
The private bank has more than tripled its assets under management (AUM) to US$85 billion. In 2016, its AUM grew about 45% year-on-year despite market volatility, according to information at its website.
In the same report. EFinancial Careers reported that BoS has recruited 20 relationship managers in Hong Kong this year, taking its relationship managers headcount to just over 400, chief executive officer Bahren Shaari told Bloomberg last week. BoS will “continue to hire” for the rest of 2017, particularly in Hong Kong, he said, without providing exact numbers.
“The Barclays Asia acquisition helped, but BoS wants to keep growing its presence in Asia. Ultimate, it aims to be among the top-three private banks in the region,” says the headhunter.
To achieve this, BoS would need to get its assets above $150bn, from today’s $85bn, he adds. “And therefore it must keep hiring and get existing bankers to grow their books.”
BoS is raising its client investment threshold from $2m to $3m next year – and will eventually set it at $5m – to help boost the productivity of its bankers.
Harjeet was awarded a Bachelor of Economics by Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, Delhi University.
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