Deutsche's Loh Boon Chye gets top CIB job in the region

Loh Boon Chye, Deutsche Bank's head of global markets for Asia-Pacific, has been appointed to an additional role as head of corporate and investment banking (CIB) in the region.

CIB is the entity that combines corporate finance, global markets and global transaction banking and which has been getting more focus at Deutsche as the bank is aiming for greater integration between its business units to help accelerate growth. Globally, CIB accounted for more than 80% of the bank's revenues in 2009 and in Asia for more than 90% of the region's total revenues of €2.96 billion ($3.8 billion).

In the second quarter this year, however, CIB net revenues fell to €4.7 billion from €5.3 billion a year earlier, partly due to more difficult market conditions and substantially lower primary equity market activity. Total revenues, as per a release issued yesterday, fell to €7.2 billion from €7.9 billion.

On July 1, Anshu Jain became the sole global head of CIB after his long-time co-head Michael Cohrs announced his retirement. On Monday evening, Jain updated Deutsche Bank staff on his plans for CIB and revealed a new management structure, which for the first time includes regional leaders of CIB. One overriding aim of the new structure, Jain said, is to create "a strong sense of cohesion across (the) three business lines".

The remit of the regional leaders, including Loh Boon Chye in Asia-Pacific, is to "deliver co-ordinated client coverage, promote cross-selling, align resources to the most promising opportunities, liaise with local regulators, work closely with (the) group regional management and chief country officers and ensure conformity with Deutsche's risk and reputation standards."

The regional leaders will all be part of a 15-member executive committee that will be collectively accountable for the performance of CIB as a single entity, while each member at the same time will have individual responsibility for a distinct business line. The committee includes senior executives from across the corporate finance, markets and transaction banking businesses.

Loh joined Deutsche Bank in 1995 and has been head of global markets in the region since 2001. An unassuming Singaporean who started his career in the international department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the de-facto central bank), he is being described as one of the savviest market operators in the region, partly because of the foresight he showed in investing in Asia's fledgling local bond markets in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

He has also been working with local regulators with the aim of broadening the product offerings in these markets.

During his nine years at the helm of global markets in the region, revenues in this business line have tripled and the headcount is up more than 180%.

"We took the view early on that to participate fully in the Asia growth story, the bank had to invest in building trading desks in local markets across the region. Thankfully that proved to be the right decision and this strategy has been a major factor in the bank's growth in Asia," Loh said in a written comment.

In a contributed article published on FinanceAsia's website in June as part of the celebrations of our first 10 years online, Loh said he expects the next decade will bring an even greater leap forward. The asset side will grow as investor demand for exposure to the region proliferates, which means more products to help investors access opportunities in the region and more liquidity for local Asian markets.

"At the same time, our clients will become increasingly global. Acquisitions by Indian and Chinese corporations have already seen flows between Asia and G3 markets increase, with currency markets offering just one example of the linkages being forged. I also expect the region's equity derivatives markets, which have lagged other asset classes in terms of the tools available to manage risk, to be a key area of development," he said.       

Before joining Deutsche, Loh worked at Morgan Guaranty Trust, which he joined in 1992. By the time he left in 1995 he had advanced to head of Southeast Asian local currency derivatives and fixed income.

A few years after moving to Deutsche he became responsible for all Asian fixed-income markets and the OTC derivatives business. In 2001 he was appointed CEO of global markets for Singapore and the following year he added the rest of Asia ex-Japan to his remit.

Since 2003 he has also been chairman of the Singapore Foreign Exchange Market Committee, which is tasked with growing and developing Singapore as a regional centre for FX, money market, fixed-income and derivatives transactions. Part of its role is to help create an interest rate and currency rate fixing mechanism for regional currencies.

Deutsche made a strong commitment to Asia during the financial crisis and in 2009 invested €300 million to expand its businesses in the region. It has publicly stated that it expects to grow its total revenues in Asia ex-Japan by 20%-25% year-on-year to €4 billion in 2011.

Globally, the bank has a target to double the pre-tax profit at its operating businesses to €10 billion, largely on the back of gains in investment banking and in Asia. The global investment bank alone is forecast to earn €6.3 billion in profit next year, while transaction banking is expected to bring in €1.3 billion.