After 22 years at the Swiss financial services giant, Zeno Staub will step down as chief executive at the next shareholders general meeting on 9 April 2024, in order to become more actively involved in Swiss civil society.

Staub’s successor as chief executive is to be determined by the end of 2023.

Also, Felix Lenhard, chief operating officer and a member of the executive committee of

Vontobel Holding AG and of Bank Vontobel AG, will step down from his role at the end of 2023.

This will allow him, among other things, to devote more time to his family in the future.

His successor will be determined by the end of 2023.

Lazard Asset Management

Middle East chief executive Farah Foustok is leaving her role at the asset manager, a spokesperson has confirmed.

Foustok joined the firm in 2014.

Fadi El Haddad will assume responsible for Middle East operations in the interim.

Progeny

The financial planning group has named Sam Murton as chief operating officer.

She has been working with Progeny as a consultant since 2022.

Murton has worked with a diverse range of businesses and sectors, including Aegon, easyJet, Three, Orange (EE) and Next.

Sesame Bankhall Group

Paul Wilson has been appointed as chief operating officer at the adviser network.

Wilson joins from Aviva, where he was chief marketing officer at Aviva.

Currently a non-executive director of SBG’s board, Wilson will officially start his new role on 3 July.

He replaces Richard Howells, who left the business.

Weatherbys

Chief executive Roger Weatherby is to step up to the role of chairman at the banking group.

Roger Weatherby, who was appointed chief executive in 2000, will take over from current chairman David Bellamy.

Bellamy will step down in March 2024 after six years in the role.

Quentin Marshall, the current managing director of Weatherbys Bank, will take over as chief executive of Weatherbys Banking Group from September 2023.

Armstrong Watson Financial Planning

Stewart Crockett has been appointed managing director and partner of the advice firm.

Crockett joins Armstrong Watson after 23 years with Close Brothers Asset Management, where he was managing director.

The firm also announced senior financial planning manager Justin Rourke has been promoted to financial planning director – head of advice.

Walker Crips Investment Management

Alan Kinnaird has joined the company as business development manager.

He has worked in financial services for 27 years, with the last three years as a senior private banker at Kleinwort Hambros Private Bank.

Matthews Asia

Beonca Yip has joined the investment management firm as head of Asia Pacific.

Yip previously led the distribution and client service teams at China Asset Management, where she was managing director, head of global client group.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management

Michael Levin will be joining the company as head of Asia.

The role is a newly created position and Levin is expected to join the firm in July.

Levin has been in the industry for over 25 years and was most recently managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Lombard Odier

The international wealth and asset manager has appointed Amit Ben Sira as market head Israel.

Ben Sira joins from family office Globe Invest, where he was head of private assets.

ValidPath

The IFA network has appointed Tim Clark as succession director.

Clark joins from M&G, where he was recruitment and acquisition director.

Withers

The international law firm has grown its Swiss practice, based in Geneva, through the addition of partner Berry Bloomberg, who joins the firm from Burges Salmon.

Bloomberg is a tax and trust specialist, representing clients on asset holding structures, the taxation of offshore trusts and companies and negotiating tax disclosures with tax authorities. His clients include internationally mobile individuals and families, trust companies and financial institutions and he has a particular focus on helping clients with US connections.

Schroders Personal Wealth (SPW)

The advice firm has appointed Justin Blower as regional director for the south and south Wales.

He will be responsible for leading SPW’s advice business across the region including Bristol, Cardiff, Oxford and the south West.

Prior to joining SPW, Blower held the role of sales director at M&G Wealth.

HSBC

The banking group has appointed Kai Zhang as the head of its wealth and personal banking (WPB) team for south Asia.

Zhang, who is based in Singapore, will take on her role from 26 June.

As part of her role, Zhang will look at accelerating the WPB team’s expansion in south Asia across eight markets: Singapore, India, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Zhang joins HSBC with over 25 years of financial services experience in North America and Asia, including leadership roles at Citi and McKinsey & Co.

Liontrust

The asset management company has appointed Victoria Stevens and Matt Tonge as fund managers of the Liontrust Special Situations and Liontrust UK Growth funds, joining existing managers Anthony Cross and Julian Fosh.

They were founding fund managers of the Liontrust UK Micro Cap Fund when it was launched in March 2016. They have also been fund managers of the Liontrust UK Smaller Companies Fund since 2016.

Square Mile

David Holder has been named as senior investment research analyst at the firm.

Holder joins from Edison Group, where he was an associate director.

Collidr

The digital asset manager has appointed Barry Cowen and Bradley Mitchell as senior investment strategists.

Cowen joins Collidr having spent the past 10 years running the Model Portfolio Service at Sanlam Wealth (now Atomos), and

Mitchell re-joins Collidr after a period as portfolio manager at Criterion Capital.

The private bank has appointed Nick Gornall as associate director.

He has had a longstanding career in private banking and wealth management having worked previously at Coutts and Arbuthnot Latham.

In his most recent private banking role, he was head of business development at Arbuthnot Latham for four years.

Julius Baer

The global wealth manager has made several hires for its office in Rio de Janeiro.

The team members include Olavo Pereira, Andrew Hancock, Francisco Figueira. Additionally, Antonio Pedro Moraes will join the Rio de Janeiro office as assistant relationship manager.

Highvern

The financial services provider has named Tom Mylott as head of operations in its Cayman team.

Mylott was previously a partner at Collis Crill, where he was based in the Cayman Islands.

Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management

The wealth manager has named Christina Au Yeung as the sole head of its investment management services team in Asia.

Based in Hong Kong, she was most recently the Asia co-head of investment management services, together with Nathan Lim.

Before her promotion, Au Yeung held the role of co-head of investment management services for the past year and was the executive director of alternative investments at the American investment manager from 2018 to 2022.

Fargo Wealth Group

Brenda Lee has joined the multi-family office as managing director, based in Singapore.

Lee was most recently executive director at Julius Baer for the past three-and-a-half years and also spent more than a decade at BNP Paribas, where she rose to the position of head of equities for Asia.

She has also worked at Merrill Lynch, Daiwa Capital Markets and HSBC.

Winckworth Sherwood

The law firm has named James Mabey as a partner of its private client practice.

Mabey acts for individuals, trustees and executors on a broad range of issues connected with wealth management and preservation, frequently working towards long-term objectives and advising on appropriate structures to pass wealth down generations.

His background is primarily in domestic private client work but he also has experience working for clients on international matters.

AJ Bell

Fiona Clutterbuck has been named non-executive chair of the investment platform.

She replaces Helena Morrissey, who announced in September that she would stand down from the board after the firm failed to agree on a role for former chief executive Andy Bell following governance concerns flagged by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In the role, Clutterbuck will join the platform’s nomination committee as chair, the risk and compliance and remuneration committees, and take on the role of the designated non-executive director for engagement with the workforce.

She will start in the role on 1 May.

Clutterbuck previously chaired Paragon Banking Group and was a non-executive director of Hargreaves Lansdown. She also holds roles on the boards of Sampo and Co-operative Bank.

During her career, she was head of strategy, corporate development and communications at Phoenix Group, having previously held banking roles with ABN Amro Investment Bank, HSBC Investment Bank and Hill Samuel Bank.

Handelsbanken Wealth & Asset Management

Richard Charnock has joined the board of the wealth firm as an independent director.

He brings his extensive experience of the wealth and savings sector to the role, including senior appointments at Abrdn, Standard Life, and Lloyds Bank.

Freeths

The law firm has strengthened its private wealth offering in the south east with the appointment of Mark Baker.

Baker joins the firm as an Associate from Penningtons Manches Cooper, where he spent almost 10 years in the private client team.

He specialises in guiding personal representatives through the estate administration process and is experienced in a broad range of estate matters. Baker advises on the preparation and submission of inheritance tax accounts, probate applications, and the estate administration process.

Up until now, the investment manager had a 49% stake in the business, and the increase is subject to business registration and regulatory procedures.

Morgan Stanley Huaxin Funds is headquartered in Shenzhen and became a joint venture in 2008. The company provides investment management services to retail and institutional clients through mutual funds and segregated management accounts.

“Wholly owning our China mutual funds business will allow us to more fully serve this dynamic asset and wealth management market and adds a significant pillar of growth to our global investment management franchise,” said Dan Simkowitz, head of investment management at Morgan Stanley.

“As we further invest in our onshore platform, we will bring over our four decades of industry experience and global research expertise in sustainability and diversified portfolio management to help domestic clients achieve their investment goals.”

Gokul Laroia, chief executive of Asia at Morgan Stanley, added: “The firm has been active in China for almost three decades and we are committed to our goal of building a fully integrated financial services firm to meet the evolving needs of domestic and global clients. Today’s announcement is an important strategic milestone along this path.

“With high levels of wealth creation, growing demand for financial advice, and with the launch of a private pension scheme, we see long-term opportunities in China’s asset management industry.”

The regulator alleged that, as far back as 2015, the company failed to properly dispose of devices containing clients’ personal identifying information (PII).

The SEC said that, on multiple occasions, MSSB hired a moving and storage company to remove thousands of hard drives and servers containing PII, despite the company not having any experience or expertise in data destruction services.

Additionally, the SEC added MSSB failed to monitor the moving company’s work, which sold thousands of Morgan Stanley’s hard drives and servers to a third party, which were then re-sold on an internet auction without being wiped of the clients’ data first.

MSSB managed to recover some of the devices which contained thousands of pieces of unencrypted customer information, but it was not able to take back the vast majority of the devices.

During the investigation, the SEC also found that local offices and branches of the firm used similar processes. During a records reconciliation exercise, MSSB discovered that 42 servers containing unencrypted PII were missing.

Additionally, Morgan Stanley found the local devices that had been disposed of were already equipped with encryption capabilities, but these were not activated for years.

‘Astonishing failures’

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney agreed to pay $35m (£30m, €35m) to settle the charges, but did not admit nor deny the regulator’s findings.

Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said: “MSSB’s failures in this case are astonishing. Customers entrust their personal information to financial professionals with the understanding and expectation that it will be protected, and MSSB fell woefully short in doing so.

“If not properly safeguarded, this sensitive information can end up in the wrong hands and have disastrous consequences for investors. The action sends a clear message to financial institutions that they must take seriously their obligation to safeguard such data.”

The two firms will provide access to a suite of private market funds managed by MSIM to global banks and wealth managers.

The original agreement was only for the US and available to institutional investors, where the tech firm and Morgan Stanley’s wealth management arm shared alternative investment feeder funs services.

Jacques Chappuis, global head of distribution and co-head of the solutions and multi-asset group at MSIM, said: “This is a new chapter in Morgan Stanley’s partnership with iCapital. While our private markets funds have typically been restricted to institutional investors, we are excited to be able to expand the client base accessing our industry leading private markets funds and help high net worth investors across the globe further diversify their investment portfolios.”

Marco Bizzozero, head of international at iCapital, added: “Wealth managers are increasingly looking to alternative investments as another way to try and help their clients improve their financial outcomes.

“The expansion of this successful partnership now offers access to the growth and diversification potential that premier private markets investment opportunities can provide to advisors and their HNW clients globally.”