Theo Iaponas has been named as chief executive of the life and pension provider.

Iaponas has held several management positions at Swiss Life since 2009, most recently at Swiss Life International as chief executive of global employee benefits in Luxembourg.

He will succeed Nils Frowein who, after 15 years at the Swiss Life Group, has decided to leave the group.

LGT Private Banking

Anke Bridge Haux has been named as chief executive of LGT Bank (Switzerland), effective from 1 November 2023.

Over the past 12 years, she has held various management positions in the Swiss unit of Credit Suisse. In 2022, as head of personal and business banking, she assumed responsibility for consumer banking and corporate clients, including the online banking app CSX.

In this role – subject to the approval of the supervisory authority – she will succeed Heinrich Henckel, who will be elected to the board of directors of LGT Bank Switzerland.

Henckel will continue to serve on the board of LGT Wealth Management UK.

Investec W&I

Barbara-Ann King has left her role as chief executive of Investec Wealth and Investment, having been promoted to the position only eight months ago.

King’s appointment as chief executive of the business was announced towards the end of July 2022, and she took up the role from managing director Ciaran Whelan on 1 October.

In a statement, Investec confirmed that King has also stepped down from the board, and that she will be on garden leave until her departure from the company on 13 August.

Acting chief executive Iain Hooley will continue in the role, while Whelan will also continue as managing director.

Vam Funds

The investment firm has hired Steve Thompson as business development director.

Thompson was previously at global advice group GSB, where he was a partner and financial planner.

Julius Baer

The private bank has named James Taylor and Mehdi Abhah as senior relationship managers.

It has also hired Anders Wennerholm as a relationship manager.

The trio will support business growth for Middle East & Africa out of Geneva.

Taylor joins from Barclays Private Bank in Geneva, where he was enior elationship manager handling client relationships across the Middle East and Africa region.

Abhah joins from Credit Suisse, where he was senior relationship manager for the Middle East desk in Geneva. Wennerholm joined from Barclays Private Bank in Geneva, where he was relationship manager for the Middle East desk.

Credit Suisse

The banking group has appointed Andy Kuo as director for greater China and the Singapore market.

Prior joining Credit Suisse, Kuo was with UBS in Taipei, where he advised onshore Taiwanese ultra-high net worth clients and their families on wealth.

RBC Wealth Management

The wealth manager has bolstered its operation in Asia with the addition of several hires.

Tan Yuh Harn joined RBC Wealth Management in January as managing director, head of discretionary portfolio management and Ultra-high net worth (UHNW) solutions, Asia.

Based in Singapore, he was senior portfolio manager, investment management Apac at Credit Suisse Wealth Management.

Alvis Chan has joined RBC as executive director, portfolio manager, UHNW Solutions, based in Hong Kong.

Before RBC, Chan worked as head of Hong Kong fixed income at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Also, RBC Wealth Management has appointed Ajay Saratchandran as head of funds, global manager research – Asia, based in Singapore.

Saratchandran was most recently senior portfolio manager and head of sub-advised securities mandates for the global discretionary portfolio management programme at Standard Chartered Bank.

Lastly, Gautam Chadda re-joined RBC as head of portfolio specialists in Singapore.

Previously, he was at Standard Chartered Private Bank, where he was a senior investment adviser.

Ruffer

Charlotte Mackay has joined the firm as senior investment associate in its private client division.

Mackay was previously an investment manager at London Wealth Management.

Saffery Champness

The accountancy group has boosted its private client team with the hire of James Stevens as partner.

He joins Saffery Champness from Deloitte, where he headed up the private client team in the eastern region.

Artemis

The investment manager has recruited Sacha El Khoury as head of impact equities.

She joins from Columbia Threadneedle Investment, where she launched the CT Sustainable Global Equity Income Strategy in May 2021 and remained lead manager until her recent resignation.

The newly-established operation will allows private clients to benefit directly from its asset management arm Swiss Life Asset Managers.

The services offered by Swiss Life Wealth Managers include asset management, financial planning, tax and retirement.

The office in Zurich will be the first of many as the firm looks to expand its offering to other regions in Switzerland in the coming years. The firm said that there will “shortly be a second location in Winterthur”.

Demand in market

Markus Leibundgut, member of the corporate executive board of the Swiss Life Group and chief executive of Switzerland, said: “We see an increasing need for comprehensive advice and tailored investment opportunities in the growing affluent market segment.

“Swiss Life Wealth Managers helps private individuals tailor their financial planning to their individual needs. In this way we make a decisive contribution to the self-determination of our customers.”

Stefan Mächler, chief investment officer of the Swiss Life Group, added: “For the first time, our investment experts are now also offering private individuals individually tailored asset management that was previously reserved for institutional investors.

“Besides long-term earnings targets, this service also comprises tailored risk management and offers our customers financial confidence in all aspects.”

The Swiss Life Group is a Europe-based life and pensions, and financial solutions provider. It is the parent group of UK financial advice firm Chase de Vere.

The companies; which include the Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Singapore operations, were charged with “conspiring with US taxpayers and others to conceal from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more than $1.45bn in offshore insurance policies”.

This includes over 1,600 insurance wrapper policies, and related policy investment accounts in banks around the world and the income generated in these accounts.

Findings

According to the DoJ, the Swiss Life companies maintained approximately 1,608 private placement life insurance (PPLI) policies. The insurance wrappers and the related investment accounts “were often done in a manner to assist US taxpayers in evading US taxes and reporting requirements and concealing the ownership of offshore assets”.

US-related PPLI policies were “funded or terminated through asset transfers from/to an account maintained by a third party associated with the policyholder, such as an offshore law firm or intermediary”.

Swiss Life PPLI personnel assisted US taxpayers in establishing and maintaining policies in the name of a foreign relative “with the effect of obscuring the US nexus of the assets used to fund the policy or to repatriate the US taxpayer’s undeclared assets through a sham death payout”.

Some US-related PPLI policies issued by Swiss Life Liechtenstein “involved transfers of physical gold, other precious metals, or precious gemstones into or out of the policy investment account, presumably for the purpose of avoiding detection by US authorities”.

The PPLI carriers allowed policyholders to designate an authorised recipient – typically the policyholder’s asset manager or other foreign representative – to receive policy documents and custodian investment account statements, rather than having those documents sent directly to the policyholder.

A number of Swiss Life Liechtenstein staff “promoted the use of Swiss Life products to turn US taxpayers’ undeclared – or so-called ‘black’ – money into so-called ‘white’ money by parking the funds in a Swiss Life insurance policy until the clock had run on the perceived statute of limitations for tax offences”.

Corporate premium bank accounts were “also misused as a transitory account to help conceal the movement of US clients’ funds”.

Agreement

The deferred prosecution agreement sees the firms accept responsibility for their criminal conduct and requires them to “refrain from all future criminal conduct, enhance remedial measures, and continue to cooperate fully with further investigations into hidden insurance policies and related policy investment accounts”, the DoJ said.

As part of the resolution, the Swiss Life companies have agreed to pay approximately $77.3m to the US treasury, which includes restitution, forfeiture of all gross fees, and a penalty.

This breaks down into:

• $16.3m in restitution to the IRS, which represents the approximate unpaid taxes resulting from its entities’ participation in the crime;
• $35.8m forfeited to the US, which represents the approximate gross fees that the Swiss Life entities earned on the insurance policies and related policy investment accounts between 2005 and 2014.
• Plus a penalty of $25.2m.

The penalty takes into consideration that Swiss Life conducted a “robust internal investigation” and “conducted extensive outreach to current and former US clients to confirm historical tax compliance, and to encourage disclosure to the IRS when policyholders’ historical tax compliance issues had not yet been resolved”.

Swiss Life also “implemented remedial measures to protect against the use of its services for tax evasion in the future”.

If the firms abide by all of the terms of the agreement, the US government will defer prosecution on the information for three years and then seek to dismiss the charge.

Cooperation

Audrey Strauss, Manhattan US attorney, said: “As they admit, Swiss Life and its subsidiaries sought out and offered their services to US taxpayers to help them become US tax evaders.

“The Swiss Life entities offered private placement life insurance policies and related policy investment accounts to US customers and provided services that concealed the policies and other assets from the IRS.

“Indeed, the Swiss Life entities saw US authorities’ stepped-up offshore tax enforcement as an opportunity to pitch themselves to tax-evading US customers as an alternative to Swiss banks. Under the terms of today’s agreement, Swiss Life will turn over more than $77m and be required to continue to cooperate with the US in identifying US tax evaders.”

As part of the agreement, the Swiss Life entities are required to continue to cooperate fully with ongoing investigations and disclose any information they may later uncover regarding US-related insurance policies and related policy investment accounts.

Markus Leibundgut, chief executive of Swiss Life Germany, is take over as chief executive of Swiss Life Switzerland on 1 April 2017. Ivo Furrer, who has held this position since 2008, has decided to leave the company.

Leibundgut started his career as chief financial officer, heading the finance & actuarial services business area of Swiss Life Switzerland, where he also served as a member of the executive board. In 2013 he became chief operating officer, stepping up to the role of chief executive for Germany in April 2014.

A search is currently underway to find a replacement for the role of chief executive of the German operation.

Columbia Threadneedle

Columbia Threadneedle Investments has appointed Michelle Scrimgeour as chief executive, Europe, Middle East & Africa (Emea) and chief executive of Threadneedle Asset Management. She will also join the executive leadership team of Ameriprise Financial.

Scrimgeour joins from M&G Investments, where she is currently chief risk officer, and a director of M&G Group. Before joining M&G, she was at BlackRock, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, and Mercury Asset Management. 

Legg Mason

Adam Gent, head of UK sales, is to leave Legg Mason to pursue other opportunities. Head of distribution Justin Eede will take over his responsibilities until a replacement is found.

Gent began his investment industry career at Chichester-based Thesis Asset Management where he held roles on the investment management side, before moving onto Henderson Global Investors to work in sales. In 2007 he joined Legg Mason, working his way up to become head of UK sales in 2010.

M&G Investments

M&G Investments has appointed Neil Donnelly as chief compliance officer. He joins from Pioneer Investments, where he has spent the last 14 years, most recently as global head of compliance. Donnelly is due to begin his new role in February.

He brings with him 16 years’ experience in compliance and related functions, managing teams in the UK, Europe and Asia. A lawyer by training, Donnelly was called to the Irish Bar in 1994 and spent his early career first with KPMG and then with legal firm Norton Rose.

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley has appointed four directors to the Private Client Investment Management (PCIM) development team to work with Gary Teper, plc director and head of investment management, to support the firm’s investment managers. 

The four directors are Jonathan Arthur, Rupert Boyle, Chris Harris-Deans, and Juliet Wedderburn. 

Arthur has joined from Hanson Asset Management, where he was head of investment management. Wedderburn previously ran her own financial services consulting business, was a partner at Above Wealth and head of London private wealth management at Deutsche Bank. 

Both Boyle and Harris-Deans are internal appointments; Boyle has been at the firm for over three years and prior to this role was the branch liaison manager, while Harris-Deans took on the role of director of regional development four years ago.

The four directors will oversee all teams and branches within PCIM, including focusing on business development and identifying operational efficiencies.  They will also act as an interface between the investment managers and senior management.

HM Treasury

The Treasury has jointly appointed Nucleus’s founder and chief executive, David Ferguson, and RBS’s head of design and transformation, Louise Smith, as regional fintech envoys to boost the growth of fintech in Scotland, to raise its profile and ensure the UK remains competitive in the market. 

Ferguson and Smith will be responsible for building regional and national networks which seek to ensure a greater level of co-ordination and collaboration between fintech companies, government, investors and regional fintech hubs.

They will also be raising awareness of regional fintech opportunities, identifying market failures and blockers to innovation and supporting the development of specific infrastructure to support the growth of fintech in the region.

The initial appointments are for one year and will be reviewed and extended by mutual consent.