Lim Say Boon joins DBS Bank

SINGAPORE, July 29, 2010 - You kinda know there was an announcement coming
when DBS Bank sent out a test message on the SGX announcement website yesterday.

Well, it came this morning and it’s yet another senior appointment at the Temasek controlled bank
which has been increasing its bench strength in the last few months with several new hires.

This time, a familiar name who was once “one of us’’ - the highly bubbly, eloquent and knowledgeable Lim Say Boon, once a senior editor in Singapore as well as Australia and
well known in the media circle.

In a statement, DBS said Mr Lim, 53, has been appointed Chief Investment Officer for its wealth management business, reporting to the recently appointed Ms Tan Su Shan who heads the bank’s private banking as well as Mr Rajan Raju, Head of Consumer Banking. Mr Lim joins the group together with a few other senior managers hired recently to beef up the private banking arm of the Singapore bank.

Mr Lim will spearhead the development of a global asset allocation strategy for DBS’ wealth management.

Mr Lim will join DBS in October from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was most recently Chief Investment Strategist for its wealth management and private banking groups. He was also co-head of Standard Chartered Bank’s Chief Investment and Advisory Office.

Mr Lim’s appointment is the latest in a series of initiatives and hires by DBS as the bank executes against CEO Piyush Gupta’s strategic priorities, which include strengthening the bank’s regional wealth management proposition for Asia’s affluent.

With the growing middle class and rising prosperity in the region, DBS sees opportunities to leverage its Asian connectivity, insights and relationships to build a leading wealth management business.

At DBS, Mr Lim will set up and work with a senior investment committee to set a multi-asset-class, strategic asset allocation framework for DBS’ wealth management clients that is risk-adjusted to suit different customer risk profiles. This strategic asset allocation framework will set the stage for relationship managers and investment counselors to advise their clients on their advisory, tactical positions or core, discretionary portfolios.

Said Ms Tan, “With the right people and platform, we need the right ideas to best advise our clients. The CIO office will pull together all the best brains – and insights – from various parts of the bank, to formulate a global investment strategy with an Asian bias for Asian clients. Most global banks offer a global asset allocation strategy for their clients, whether they are in the US, Europe or Asia. DBS’ investment strategy will be unique in that it will be formulated to fit in and resonate with our clients' strong Asian focus.”

In a career spanning 28 years, Mr Lim has held various senior positions in investment research and private banking/wealth management.

Before Standard Chartered Bank, he had held positions including Director, Portfolio Counseling with Citigroup Private Bank; Head of Investment Research for OCBC Securities; regional Research Manager with Societe Generale-Crosby Securities; Director of Research for Standard Chartered Indonesia; and Research Manager for Standard Chartered Securities Singapore.
He also held senior positions in the financial media in Australia in the 1990s - as finance editor for The Herald-Sun and Sunday Herald-Sun newspapers.


Meanwhile, Olivier Crespin joined DBS Private Banking on 1 July as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Crespin is tasked with providing seamless integration to all parts of the bank, providing high tech banking solutions and a trustworthy backbone for DBS clients’ banking needs. Prior to DBS, Crespin had a 16- year career with Citi in Asia, North and South America. His latest position was Global Head of Operations at Citi Private Bank, based in New York.

DBS Private Banking recently strengthened its Non Resident Indian (NRI) business, as well as its teams for Singapore and the region. The bank appointed Mr Hemal Khanna and Ms Gayatri Ahuja as team leads for the NRI segment. Khanna was previously a senior director at ABN Amro in Singapore, and Ahuja was from DBS Treasures. Other recent appointments include Mr Samer Taki, who heads the Middle East team, Ms Frances Boon who heads one of the Singapore teams, Ms Geraldine Low who joined as a senior private banker and Mr Wee Yan Hann, who joined as senior regional product manager.