Thursday, 18 April 2024
Bank of Singapore appoints industry veteran as chief investment officer
Bank of Singapore announced that Mr Rajeev De Mello has joined the Bank and will take on the role of Chief Investment Officer (CIO), pending regulatory approval. He will report to Mr Marc Van de Walle, Global Head of Products.
As the CIO, Mr De Mello, 52, will oversee the research and investment strategy teams that produce Bank of Singapore’s house views across and within all financial asset classes. He will be the Chairman of the Bank’s investment committee that decides on the global strategic and tactical asset allocations calls for clients.
Mr De Mello will also manage the bank’s Discretionary Portfolio Management (DPM), a service which is becoming more popular with clients who recognise that they are not able to monitor the markets closely and prefer to leave their investments in the hands of professional managers. The Bank’s DPM’s assets under management (AUM) Media Release Includes suggested Tweets, Facebook posts, keywords and official hashtags grew 30 per cent in 2017 and its penetration rate of DPM is higher than other private banks in Asia.
A Swiss national, Mr De Mello brings with him more than 30 years of experience in global financial markets with a strong record in emerging and developed market bonds, currencies, precious metals and derivatives and risk allocation between asset classes.
In Asia, where he has spent a total of 14 years, Mr De Mello has worked in Hong Kong and Singapore. This included managing trading teams during the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis.
Based in Singapore since 2005, he was most recently the Head of Asian Fixed Income and Co-Head of Emerging Market Debt at Schroders Investment Management overseeing the investment teams in Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta Taipei and Tokyo.
In this capacity, Mr De Mello was a member of the Global Fixed Income Management Committee and the Asia-Pacific Executive Committee as well.
During his seven-year stint at the British multinational asset manager, assets under management more than doubled as he expanded investments into credit and into onshore China.
In Singapore, Mr De Mello has channeled his experience to the development of the country’s investment and fund management industry.
He has been Chairman of the Investment Management Association of Singapore’s Development Committee since 2013, spearheading efforts to grow and develop the industry through various initiatives from introducing best practices and strengthening partnerships to stimulating innovations. Before becoming Chairman, he was a committee member from 2007.
Mr De Mello has also been a member of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Markets Committee in the last three years. This is a group of experts dedicated to growing Singapore into a leading international centre for transactions in foreign exchange, money market, fixed income and derivatives instruments.
In recognition of his commitment to industry development and exemplification of thought leadership, Mr De Mello was conferred the IBF Fellow award in 2016 in the area of Fund Management by the Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF).
Mr De Mello holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics. Besides Asia, he has experience working in Switzerland, Chile, the US and the UK.
Mr De Mello’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Bank of Singapore’s growth plans. Just last month, it obtained regulatory approval to set up a wealth management subsidiary in Luxembourg and is expanding its Hong Kong franchise to deepen its coverage in the Greater China region.
Bank of Singapore’s AUMstood at US$102 billion as at 30 June 2018, 14 per cent higher than a year ago.
Said Mr Marc Van de Walle, Global Head of Products, Bank of Singapore, “With the increasing market uncertainties, timely and insightful research capabilities will give investors a crucial advantage in identifying the most attractive risk adjusted opportunities. That is why we have, over the past few years, expanded and deepened our research capabilities significantly to cope with a more challenging investing environment in the years ahead.
“Rajeev’s stellar track record in emerging and developed markets over three decades will help us to maintain the high level of trust and confidence our clients have in us. We are pleased that he has decided to join us.”
Said Mr De Mello, “It is very exciting for me to join the fastest growing Asian private bank. I strongly believe that properly investing Asia’s huge savings will be critical for regional investors and for global markets.”
Re-dessiminated by The Asian Banker
