Bill Maldonado has been named as the chief executive of the firm’s asset management business, Eastspring Investments.

Maldonado has been serving as interim chief executive since April this year and, having joined Eastspring Investments in September 2021, has been chief investment officer since May 2022.

Prior to joining Eastspring, Maldonado served as the Asia Pacific chief investment officer and global chief investment officer for equities at HSBC Global Asset Management.

A chief investment officer for Eastspring Investments will be appointed in due course.

RBC Wealth Management

The wealth manager has appointed Rod Ireland as interim head of RBC Wealth Management Asia.

This in addition to his current role as head of global markets Apac for RBC Capital Markets.

He replaces Terence Chow, who has left RBC.

Redington

The independent investment consultancy firm has appointed Gavin Howard as chief financial officer.

With more than 30 years’ experience in financial services, he has been chief financial officer at both IFG Group and Nucleus Financial, as well as having held senior executive positions at firms including Partnership Assurance and Octopus Lifestyle.

Brooks Macdonald

The wealth manager has appointed Henrietta Walker as head of the investment specialist team.

She joins Brooks Macdonald from her senior associate partner role at Sarasin & Partners, where she was deputy portfolio manager of its MPS.

Close Brothers Asset Management (CBAM)

Chris Hutchinson has joined the firm as senior investment manager.

He previously worked at Investec Wealth and Investment.

Janus Henderson Investors

The asset manager has made multiple hires in its Asia distribution team.

Alexis Lavergne has joined the investment manager as investment specialist for fixed income, while Andrew Cox has joined as investment specialist for equity. Both are newly created roles and are based in Singapore.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Joeson and Keith Chan have joined in Hong Kong as director and sales manager for intermediary sales respectively.

Lavergne joins Janus Henderson from H2O Asset Management, where he was client portfolio manager responsible for global macro fixed income and currencies strategies.

Meanwhile, Cox has joined Janus Henderson following a brief sabbatical. He previously served as head of investor relations and corporate development at real estate firm Globalworth.

Meanwhile, Joeson joins from Invesco, where she was senior manager for intermediary sales covering private bank distributions. She previously worked at Income Partners Asset Management and Citibank.

Chan was mostly recently an associate in the financial institutions group at Lazard Asset Management. He also worked at Bank J Safra Sarasin.

JM Finn

The investment manager has named Lucy Coutts as head of its York office.

Coutts, who has been at JM Finn since 2011, takes over as head of the recently relocated York office, effective immediately.

Ben Bulmer has been named as chief financial officer at the global financial services group.

Bulmer is currently chief financial officer of insurance and asset management at the company.

He succeeds James Turner, who has resigned as chief financial officer in light of an investigation into a code of conduct issue relating to a recent recruitment situation.

Prudential said: “The group sets itself high standards and Mr Turner fell short on this occasion. Mr Turner will remain available to the group for a period of four months to support a smooth transition.

“There are no implications for the financial performance, reporting or operations of the business.”

FIM Capital

The Isle of Man-based wealth firm has promoted David Bushe as chief executive.

He previously was investment director at the company.

Prior to FIM Capital, he was a director at Ravenscroft Group.

Novia Financial

The platform business has brought together its operations and technology teams under the direction of Eden Scrivenger, who takes on the expanded role of chief technology and operations officer.

Scrivenger, who joined the platform in August last year, will be supported by newly appointed operations director, Julie Gawthorpe, who joins from pensions administration provider Diligenta.

FWD Group

Sid Sankaran has been named as managing director and group chief financial officer, effective 1 September 2023, subject to regulatory approval.

Sankaran will join the company as senior adviser from 1 June 2023.

He will succeed Jon Nielsen, who will be pursuing a career opportunity in North America.

GBST

The global wealthtech company has hired Simon Clare as head of product innovation.

Before joining GBST, Clare was chief product officer at FE Fundinfo.

Isio

The pension consultancy firm has promoted Emily McGuire to lead its investment advisory team.

McGuire, previously at Aon, joined Isio in May 2022.

She takes on the role from Nick Evans, who is turning his focus to client development, exploring new opportunities to diversify and grow the business.

JM Finn

Rebecca Dawkins has joined the wealth manager as an associate wealth planner.

Before joining JM Finn, she was at London Wall Partners and prior to that at Saunderson House.

Marlborough

The fund manager has appointed Kevin Addison as head of UK wholesale and institutional funds distribution.

Addison joins from Downing Fund Managers, where he was head of sales and distribution. Before that, he was head of funds distribution at Brooks Macdonald.

Old Mill

The wealth manager has promoted chartered accountant Jamie Rudge and compliance director Duncan Parkes as technical partners.

The promotions bring the total number of partners to 25.

Industry veteran Bernard Chai was appointed chief executive officer of Prudential Financial Advisers Singapore

The life insurer received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on 27 December 2022.

Through the advice arm, Prudential can now provide customers with more products and services complementary to its life insurance offerings. This includes wealth solutions and general insurance such as travel insurance and motor insurance.

The financial advisory firm adds to Prudential’s existing distribution channels comprising a tied agency of more than 5,000 financial consultants, exclusive bancassurance partners – United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) – as well as digital channels such as the Pulse by Prudential app.

Chai said: “Customers today are expecting more one-stop solutions to meet their needs amid rising life expectancy, and PFA is well-placed to meet this need.”

With the addition of Macau, Prudential will have a presence in 24 markets across Asia and Africa.

Prudential will initially offer life and health insurance solutions in Macau through its agency force. The solutions include multi-currency options to meet customer needs in savings, healthcare and protection.

The firm has appointed Chris Ma as general manager of Prudential Macau. Ma was chief executive of AIA Macau prior to joining Prudential.

Lilian Ng, managing director of strategic business group at Prudential, said the Macau branch completes the company’s footprint in China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA). The GBA is made up of nine cities in the Guangdong Province and the two Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau.

She added: “While we have seen rapid economic development in Macau, insurance penetration remains low. With the city’s fast-ageing population, there is strong demand from its residents for solutions that can help them access private healthcare facilities in Macau and elsewhere in the GBA.

“The Macau branch will play a pivotal role in our strategy to make healthcare and financial security more accessible to people in the GBA, as we leverage our 50-year experience of providing insurance to customers in Hong Kong.”

The bond, which has been available to UK advisers through Ireland-based Prudential International Assurance (PIA) since 2020, will give advisers in the jurisdictions access to a wide range of investment options, including its PruFund range.

IPB is a single premium insurance contract that offers online illustrations for individual, corporate and trustees cases, and online applications for individual cases.

As well as the PruFund range of funds, advisers and their clients can invest in funds from external fund managers within the same international bond.

Michael Leahy, managing director of PIA, said: “Modern, digital products are in high demand and we’re delighted to be able to extend the availability of Prudential International Portfolio Bond, with its online functionality and wide investment choice, to advisers and their clients based in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

“Today’s launch also gives advisers in these jurisdictions access, for the first time, to the PruFund Planet range funds, which offers their clients the combined benefits of smoothed market returns and positive environmental and societal outcomes.”