BNY Mellon names client management head
US investment and custodian group BNY Mellon continues to ring the changes in Asia, with the appointment of Gregory Roath as Asia-Pacific head of global client management, a role that spans all the firm's businesses.
He replaces Eleni Wang, who took on the newly created role of Asia-Pacific head of investment services in September.
Roath will report to Steve Lackey, Asia-Pacific chairman, and his former post as Asia-Pacific head of depositary receipts has been taken by Neil Atkinson.
In his new role, effective April 1, Roath will work with BNY Mellon’s country executives across the region in managing relationships with clients and regulators. Atkinson, Roath and Wang are all based in Hong Kong.
Roath had moved to Hong Kong to oversee the depositary receipts business in North Asia, having joined BNY Mellon in New York in 1999. Atkinson has been in Hong Kong since 2011 after starting with the firm in London in 2006.
Lackey says the custodian bank will continue to target more collaboration across its investment services and investment management businesses.
The reshuffle comes as BNY Mellon is busy looking to build out its new separately managed account business across the region. The platform, run by AJ Harper, offers high-net-worth individuals access to SMAs for as little as $1 million, well below the typical $100 million minimum SMA investment for institutions globally.
In January the platform signed up five asset managers to offer strategies in Hong Kong: BlackRock, Capital International, Henderson Global Investors, Lazard Asset Management and UOB Asset Management. It said at the time it was expecting to add up to four more in the following three months.
The five new managers join four in-house firms already on the platform: BNY Mellon Asset Management Japan, Mellon Capital Management Corporation, The Boston Company and CenterSquare.
Having received a licence to roll out the SMA platform in Hong Kong around mid-2013, BNY Mellon said in December it was expanding it to Singapore and had hired Chris Faddy from Credit Suisse Asset Management to oversee the buildout there.
The group’s asset management arm has also been busy expanding. It is setting up an investment and distribution team in Singapore, after receiving the appropriate licence in November. BNY Mellon Investment Management ultimately plans to build out local investment capabilities across the region, says Wendy Lim, the new Singapore CEO and Asia-Pacific head of business development and marketing.
The Singapore capital markets service licence allows BNY Mellon IM to offer a full range of services, including research, portfolio management, marketing and sales. Previously the office was solely used for providing research.