Before the move to Morningstar, Bishun spent over three years as a senior investment solutions director at Brooks Macdonald, and has held roles at BlackRock, Barclays, Baring, and Citi. He worked at Barclays for 10 years, beginning as assistant portfolio manager and working his way to head of investment management for Channel Islands.

Launched in 2022, the Wealth Management Solutions group is designed to bridge Morningstar Wealth’s investment management with partner firms, which it hopes will “help advisers build centralised investment propositions”.

Ben Lester, head of distribution at Morningstar Wealth, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Chris to the Morningstar Wealth team. He brings a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge and we’re looking forward to working with him to enhance the service proposition we deliver to advice firms.”

This article was written for our sister title Portfolio Adviser

The global investment manager has named Mike Freno as chairman and chief executive.

He is currently president, a role he assumed in February of this year.

Tom Finke, chairman and chief executive, who has served in this role since 2016, will retire from Barings at the end of November and pursue another opportunity.

JTC

The private client services provider has appointed Richard Ingle as group chief risk officer.

He has worked for a number institutions including the UK Financial Services Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority), JPMorgan and most recently Standard Chartered Bank, where he spent nine years as the Channel Island chief executive.

Deutsche Bank

The banking giant has named Frank Krings as chief country officer of France and general manager of the Deutsche Bank Paris branch.

Krings is chief executive of Deutsche Bank Group for western Europe and currently chairman of the management board of Deutsche Bank Luxembourg.

He takes over from Laure Lemonnier, country chief operating officer, who assumed interim responsibility for the country.

Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG

Georg Wohlwend has decided to resign as chairman of the board of directors of the private banking group.

His decision is due to criminal proceedings against him that are unrelated to his work at the LLB Group.

Wohlwend firmly denies the allegations.

Vice chair Gabriela Nagel-Jungo is assuming his responsibilities, effective 4 November 2020.

Orbis Investments

The firm has added Nextwealth boss Heather Hopkins to its board as a director.

A filing from Companies House showed Hopkins had been made a member on 2 November alongside former EY fintech lead Imran Gulamhuseinwala.

Hopkins is a data expert, having served as the research director and then head of Centaur’s market–research firm Platforum.

In 2017 she founded consultancy Nextwealth, where she is managing director.

Gulamhuseinwala is a trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, as well as a board member of the charity commission for England and Wales and an investment committee member for Aviva Ventures, the fund group’s venture capital arm, according to his Linkedin profile.

Liu Zhaoying, an SFC-licencee, is the legal representative for the Barings onshore entity, according to Amac.

Likewise, Hong Kong-based Income Partners registered its onshore presence with Amac last week. The WFOE is currently represented by Desmond Kuang, Hong Kong-based portfolio manager and senior analyst for Asia fixed income.

For these two firms, the next step would be to register for a private fund manager (PFM) or a qualified domestic limited partner (QDLP) licence with Amac. If the licence is approved, the firms would have six months to launch an onshore fund.

In July, New York-based Van Eck Associates filed a request to convert its investment advisory WFOE into an investment management entity.

The conversion, which is still pending approval, would also put the firm on the path to a PFM or QDLP licence.

The advisory WFOE, set up in 2013 in Shanghai, is headed by Patty Ye, managing director for Greater China at Van Eck Global.

In Asia, the firm distributes products to mainly professional investors. According to FE Analytics, a total of 12 exchange-traded funds and two Ucits products managed by Van Eck are available for sale to accredited investors based in Singapore.

Onshore funds coming

Allianz Global Investors, Manulife Asset Management and Mirae Global Investments, which already have the IM WFOE structure, have each secured a licence for selling their funds to domestic qualified investors via the QDLP programme.

Although PFM and QDLP licences have some similarities, there is a key difference. PFM licence holders are permitted to invest onshore to serve domestic qualified investors while the QDLP managers are allowed to raise money domestically to invest in offshore traditional and alternative investments, including overseas equity and bond funds, hedge funds and real estate.

Amac’s database revealed that the WFOE of each firm obtained the qualification last week. For each new licence holder, the association places a six-month deadline for the first QDLP product launch.

Earlier this year, BNP Paribas Asset Management became the first firm to obtain the QDLP licence after officials announced they would resume granting the quota for the scheme in April.

Neuberger Berman, Aberdeen Standard Investment and Alliance Bernstein also secured QDLP licences in mid-2018.

Therefore, by February 2019, there is expected to be at least six more products rolled out by the licence holders.

Other firms in the queue which are also seeking official confirmation for a QDLP licence include JP Morgan Asset Management, Robeco and Nomura Asset Management.

For more insight on asset and wealth management in Asia, please visit www.fundselectorasia.com

Woodbrook Group’s wealth division has appointed Mark Slevin as regional manager Cyprus.

He takes up this role from beginning of May 2018 and will be based at the Woodbrook Group head office in Limassol.

Slevin has many years of experience working both as an IFA and as a team leader.

Slevin is a former deVere senior partner and was most recently a business development consultant with The Fortress Group.

Investec

Investec Asset Management has appointed Imran Ahmad to its Multi-Asset Investment team as a portfolio manager.

Ahmad joins from Standard Life Investments where he was portfolio manager of the EMD Unconstrained Fund. Prior to this, he held portfolio management responsibilities at JP Morgan Asset Management.

Appleby

Appleby has promoted seven staff to partner and announced the appointment of two lawyers to the position of Counsel for its Cayman and Isle of Man offices.

Appleby’s new appointments include members from its Corporate and Dispute Resolution teams.

Partner promotions:

Samuel Banks (Corporate, Cayman Islands), Matthew Ebbs-Brewer (Corporate, Bermuda), Gary Harris (Corporate, Bermuda)
Jacob MacAdam (Corporate, Cayman Islands), Sally Penrose (Corporate, Bermuda), Jerome Wilson (Corporate, Bermuda)
and Gavin Woods (Corporate, Bermuda).

Counsel appointments: Claire Collister (Dispute Resolution, Isle of Man) and Paul Kennedy (Dispute Resolution, Cayman Islands).

Natixis

François Riahi has been appointed chief executive officer of Natixis. He succeeds Laurent Mignon, who has been appointed chairman of Groupe BPCE’s management board. Riahi’s new role will become effective on June 1, 2018 when Mignon becomes chairman of Natixis’ board of directors.

Riahi joined Groupe BPCE when it was first established in 2009 having started his career in public finances.

Natixis affiliate AlphaSimplex Group has appointed Kathryn Kaminski, as chief research strategist. Kaminski will also join the ASG Managed Futures Strategy Fund portfolio management team. Kaminski joins from the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering.

Barings

Barings has appointed Christopher Smart to head of global macroeconomic and geopolitical research.

Smart and his team will draw on the analysis of Barings’ 600+ global investment professionals who manage more than $305bn in public and private market strategies.

Smart spent six years as a senior policy maker for international economic affairs in the Obama administration. From 2013 to 2015, he was the special assistant to the president at the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.

Most recently, he has conducted economic policy research at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government; and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.