J.P. Morgan hires new corporate banking boss for Asia-Pacific

Muhammad Aurangzeb has joined J.P. Morgan as chief executive officer of its global corporate bank (GCB) in Asia-Pacific, the bank announced yesterday. He is based in Singapore and replaces Mike Brown who has moved to a senior position in the bank’s London office.  

Aurangzeb was hired from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) where he was most recently the country executive for Singapore and head of global banking and markets for Southeast Asia and Pakistan. In this role, Aurangzeb was responsible for the overall operations of RBS’s primary debt and equity capital markets, structured finance, and sales and trading throughout the region. He also managed relationships with the UK bank's main corporate, financial institution and public sector clients.

“Asia-Pacific is a key focus of the firm’s international expansion and strong progress has been made in ensuring J.P. Morgan is well-positioned to meet client demand for more corporate banking support within the region and in the other locations where our clients do business,” said Aurangzeb in a statement.

Aurangzeb, who started his 25-year banking career with Citibank, held several roles with ABN AMRO before the Dutch bank was bought by RBS in 2007. These included global head of commercial client segment, based in Amsterdam, where he was responsible for managing the commercial banking business of large and mid-sized companies and financial institutions clients. He had also been country manager for Pakistan.

At J.P. Morgan, Aurangzeb reports to Greg Guyett, chief executive officer of global corporate bank, and Gaby Abdelnour, chairman and chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan Asia-Pacific.

Commenting on the appointment, Abdelnour said: “We see tremendous potential for expanding our corporate banking business in Asia, where the economic growth rates exceed most parts of the world. [Aurangzeb] brings a wealth of experience in the financial issues faced by large corporations, financial institutions and public sector organisations”.

According to Guyett, the Asia-Pacific corporate banking business originated from three main areas: non-Asian multinational companies operating within the region; inter-regional business such as intermediating and financing trade flows; and serving Asian multinationals that are conducting business outside the region.  

“We are focused on expanding our business with companies, financial institutions as well as public sector organisations, but we do not intend to compete with local banks for domestic corporate banking business,” he said.

A spokesperson added that J.P. Morgan had about 100 corporate bankers throughout the world a year ago and that the number increased to more than 200 in 2010.

"Our plan is to have a team of 300 corporate bankers globally, a third of which are likely to be based in Asia,” said the spokesperson.