LUM YIN FONG
DBS BANK
MANAGING DIRECTOR, WHOLESALE BANKING, GTS – CASH AND TRADE
A 25-year veteran of the transaction banking business, Lum has been a fixture in Asia’s cash management business since its inception. With a successful career including periods in Citi and ABN Amro, Lum joined DBS global transaction services (GTS) in 2001. Since then she has driven the bank’s product, sales, and technology infrastructure, which has helped lay the foundation for the bank’s successful expansion across Asia today.
During the financial crisis, DBS targetted cash management as a way to grow. And Lum has been a key part of delivering on that promise. She has helped add more than S$1 billion ($795,000) to the top line. Under her leadership, DBS’s cash management business has launched a number of innovations, including the xDDA service, which reduces turnaround time for certain applications from the industry norm of three weeks to as little as a day.
Today, the cash management business at DBS boasts the highest society for worldwide interbank financial telecommunications (Swift) payment volumes across all financial institutions in Singapore, and has a market leading $48 billion worth of client deposits.
LINNA REN
BANK OF CHINA
HEAD OF CASH MANAGEMENT
In 2010 when Ren took the helm of cash management at one of China’s oldest banks, she became responsible for reenergising Bank of China’s (BOC)services. She was a decision-maker who helped create the development of its Global Cash Management System, which aims to meet the changing client requirements that are arising as mainland companies become more global players.
The system offers a variety of services, ranging from account, payment and collection offerings, to details on liquidity, investment and financing, as well as risk and cross-border cash management products. All in, it provides clients with a global service.
Before taking charge of the business, Ren spearheaded the development of BOC’s basic, dedicated, quick payment, account for custody and settlement finance, as well as renminbi services during her five-year tenure as head of product information in corporate banking. This followed 20 years of experience in the accounts, finance and settlement divisions of the bank’s corporate banking unit.
SRIDHAR KANTHADAI
CITI
REGIONAL HEAD ASIA-PACIFIC, TREASURY AND TRADE SOLUTIONS, GTS
As regional head of treasury and trade solutions for one of Asia’s truly big cash management beasts, Kanthadai has helped drive Citi’s business to new heights across all 18 countries in the region. Under Kanthadai’s guidance, Citi’s cash management franchise has processed more than $1.9 billion of transactions annually and moved more than $3 trillion daily. During the last year alone, Citi’s Swift volumes rose by 17.5% year-on-year, recorded a clearing house interbank payments system (CHIPS) market share of 14.9% and posted more than $300 million in cash management sales.
Kanthadai’s team has rolled out more than 30 new product features and innovations to help clients improve their all-important working capital cycle, achieve operational efficiency, and manage risk more effectively.
Examples of key innovations include use of mobile phones as a global payments device with Cash2Mobile and International Mobile Top-Up, direct debit pioneering solutions in China, Korean won time deposits and specified money trusts — plus the bank’s growing capabilities in the commercial and prepaid cards business.
BACH THUY HA
TECHCOMBANK
HEAD OF TRANSACTION BANKING DIVISION
Since joining Vietnam’s Techcombank more than two years ago, Bach has been instrumental in first establishing and then developing the bank’s transaction banking division into one of the leading local providers of cash management and trade finance services in Vietnam. Drawing on her experience with Citi and Deutsche Bank, Bach has helped position Techcombank as the first and as yet only Vietnamese bank to build a specialised cash management team.
Under her watch, Techcombank has also introduced several innovative cash management products including F@stEBank, F@stCollection and liquidity management products. It has also invested in technology previously only available to foreign banks thereby enabling it to cater to large customers. As a result, Techcombank has won numerous cash management mandates from large state-owned enterprises, private companies and multinational corporations. During the past two years, Bach has helped double the bank’s clients to more than 50,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations, and net revenue from cash management has increased by more than 40% every year.
GEORGE NAST
STANDARD CHARTERED BANK
GLOBAL HEAD PRODUCTS, TRANSACTION BANKING
Since he joined Standard Chartered in January 2010, Nast has restructured Standard Chartered’s cash management business, which has been identified as a key driver of strategy and revenues. Under his leadership, the bank has reorganised its product management organisation globally into client segment-focused teams, while he has also been instrumental in driving his team to apply best practices in liquidity management for the bank’s clients.
This has involved implementing a number of innovative products in the process, including a new liquidity management offering for multi-national clients enabling interest optimisation and allowing currencies such as offshore renminbi to be part of the solution. Nast and his team have also launched a global billing system that enables all clients to pay charges and receive standardised billing reports at a consolidated level according to their preferred billing cycle.
(See next page for more profiles...)
PATRICIA RIINGEN
WESTERN UNION
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PACIFIC AND INDOCHINA
Consider that the Philippines is one of the world’s largest remittance-receiving countries, and you realise that Western Union is a logical choice for a cash-management award, even if it isn’t a bank. But Riingen has done more than just pick up the low-hanging fruit. She has built a stronger business.
For one, she has driven the expansion of mobile and bank account-based money transfer services and was a key driver in Western Union’s move into the business-to-business field with the introduction of Western Union Business Solutions to the Philippines, which was the first such service in Asia.
Riingen has transformed Western Union’s business with new international cross-border and domestic money transfer services and cutting-edge services and platforms to consumers and business. In 2005, Riingen’s team launched a new model and infrastructure for local money transfer services from urban to rural areas. She inaugurated the same service in Australia this year.
Indeed, since she joined the company in 2005, Riingen has been a leading member of a team that has helped Western Union’s transaction volumes across the region grow by 80%.
JIANGUO LI
CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK
GENERAL MANAGER OF THE TREASURY MANAGEMENT AND SETTLEMENT DEPARTMENT
Li was responsible for leading the development of China Construction Bank’s cash management arm and launching seven product lines in the process. He led the bank’s first major deal in 2002 when CCB provided General Electric with a cash pooling service for its business in China, regarded by the bank as the first milestone in its cash management business.
By the end of September this year, CCB boasted a cash management client portfolio of more than 380,000, up almost 90% from the same period last year. Revenue from its cash management business also grew more than 75% year-on-year to Rmb2.77 billion (about $357 million).
Li gained his financial management experience as the deputy mayor of Shuangyashan, in the Heilongjiang province of China.
FAISAL AMEEN
BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH
HEAD OF TREASURY PRODUCTS, ASIA PACIFIC GLOBAL TREASURY SOLUTIONS
Regarded as one of the key additions to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Asia-Pacific cash management business when he was brought in from Citi in 2010, Ameen has already played a central role in launching several new products and services since he came onboard. In a wide ranging brief, Ameen is responsible for treasury product development and delivery, sales enablement, product consulting, balance sheet management and product innovation, development and management.
Among other achievements, Ameen oversaw the expansion of the CashPro Online portal — a website that gives clients better and faster access to bank information — to provide global access to a range of treasury, debt, foreign exchange, investment and loan capabilities. He has also helped enhance local currency capabilities to market leading standards, including international renminbi settlement to help clients take advantage of the internationalisation of the Chinese currency.
JASON TAN
HSBC
REGIONAL HEAD OF CLIENT MANAGEMENT ASIA-PACIFIC
Tan spent three years as the bank’s head of global payments and cash management in Malaysia prior to his regional post, and that is proving critical to his new role.
HSBC may have a massive region-wide cash business, but growing competition in an industry earmarked by many local and international players as a driver of growth meant that local knowledge is key if you want to compete for business outside of the multinationals in Asia.
His input helped HSBC aggressively grow its Malaysian franchise, while his ability to set up a multi-skilled team made up of professionals from within the bank and across the industry, has proven equally important to driving the bank’s regional business and client management platform.
In addition, his experience of product management and sales throughout Asia has proven a significant boost to HSBC’s significant regional cash management ambitions.
YAN XU
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF CASH MANAGEMENT AND SETTLEMENT
China’s emergence as an economic power has been reflected in the development of many of its banks’ transaction banking capabilities. At the forefront of this development has been ICBC, the world’s largest bank in terms of market capitalisation. The bank’s cash management business has been ably led by Xu who took over as managing director of the bank’s cash management and settlement business in 2006. She has more than 30 years of experience in various departments, including the accounting and finance, accounting settlement and cash management teams.
Xu’s business serves a customer base of more than 500,000 including all the Chinese non-banking companies in the Fortune 500, which account for almost 15% the bank’s total customer portfolio.
(See next page for more profiles...)
MARC THOMASAUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP
HEAD OF PAYMENTS AND CASH MANAGEMENT REGIONAL SOLUTIONS AND ADVISORY TEAMS
As head of ANZ’s payments and cash management regional solutions and advisory teams, Thomas has been central to the Australian bank’s strategy to become a super regional bank in Asia-Pacific. Based in Melbourne (and the only entry in our list working out of Australia), Thomas and his team have successfully bridged the boundaries for the bank’s clients by facilitating their payment and cash management needs across the region.
Thomas’s team has provided ANZ with a regional deal management framework across key geographies, and has generated increased efficiencies in communication for both clients and ANZ staff across the 32 markets in which it currently operates. The success of the regional solutions team during the past year is evidenced by the mandates awarded to ANZ for clients operating in multiple geographies underpinning ANZ’s regional strategy.
MICHAEL HUANG
CHINATRUST
HEAD OF GLOBAL CASH MANAGEMENT
Heading up the cash management business of what is probably Taiwan’s most aggressively internationalising bank is Chinatrust’s Huang. Since rejoining Chinatrust in 2005, Huang and his team have developed a highly successful revenue generating business winning 465 new cash mandates in 2010.
Under Huang’s leadership, his business has contributed 14% of total wholesale banking revenue this year, while the contribution from overseas markets also rose from 14% in 2005 to 25% this year with 19% compound annual growth rate for overseas deposit volume.
During his first stint at the bank, Huang was at the forefront of efforts to develop Taiwan’s domestic transaction banking industry in the 1990s when the industry was dominated by international banks. Indeed, Huang helped pioneer Chinatrust’s first cash management business. So you could say he’s earned his spot on this list twice. This business now operates out of a domestic franchise of 146 branches and a growing regional and global presence of 66 overseas outlets.
RAYMOND CHEEOCBC BANK
VICE-PRESIDENT, HEAD CASH MANAGEMENT SINGAPORE, GROUP TRANSACTION BANKING
Taking the helm in 2010, Chee has had a highly productive opening two years at OCBC, further enhancing its position as a top provider of domestic cash management services in Singapore. Leading a team of 40, he managed to increase OCBC’s corporate Singapore dollar account balance by 37% (above market growth of 25%) also growing the bank’s cash management market share in Singapore’s corporate sector.
In addition, he has helped the bank make significant progress in the government sector with a series of landmark deals, while he has been instrumental in strengthening OCBC’s position in the non-bank financial institution sector.
In the SME sector, Chee’s team has introduced a number of innovations, perhaps most impressive was Singapore’s first customisable corporate debit card aimed at SMEs. Under his watch the bank also introduced Singapore’s first tailored business account for start-ups and upgraded Singapore’s first corporate SMS/email notification service.
LOO ENG HOCK
MAYBANK
DIRECTOR, HEAD OF CASH MANAGEMENT TRANSACTION BANKING, GLOBAL WHOLESALE BANKING
Tasked not only with making Maybank a local force in cash management, but also with consolidating and growing the team and business throughout the region, Loo oversees the cash management business in Malaysia and in all overseas units. These include the major markets of Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Having joined Maybank in 2010 with more than 20 years experience managing banking systems and planning, Loo has already increased revenue by 25% from a client base of more than 25,000 during his relatively short tenure, while also launching a full suite of new products as the bank positions itself as a market leader in cash management services. The ultimate team player willing to listen to ideas from all members of his team, Loo is central to Maybank’s strategy to become the leading Asean wholesale bank by 2015 with cash management at its forefront.
MAHESH KINI
DEUTSCHE BANK
HEAD OF CASH MANAGEMENT FOR CORPORATES ASIA-PACFIC
Another industry veteran, Kini’s ability to tap into Deutsche Bank’s global network has been critical to the bank’s cash management success. He oversaw a strong first half of 2011 for the bank’s cash management for corporates business ,which posted 45% year-on-year increase in revenues. Thanks to Kini, the German bank now can respond to its clients’ needs from a regional rather than a national point of view.
Kini’s 15 years of transaction banking experience, with a particular focus on the cash management field, covers a wide scope of responsibilities ranging from sales, product management and project execution. He leads a team of 70 on-the-ground staff across 14 markets in Asia as well as a five-member regional sales team based in Hong Kong and Singapore.
(See next page for more profiles...)
HENDRA LEMBONG
J.P. MORGAN
HEAD OF CASH MANAGEMENT, ASIA-PACIFIC
In just his first year with J.P. Morgan, Lembong, who joined in November 2010, has already played an instrumental role in developing the bank’s regional business. His prior experience working in two major international banks twinned with a global network across both emerging and OECD (organisation of economic cooperation and development) markets, plus a rigorous client-centric approach, has helped him establish an impressive record at J.P. Morgan, winning a number of significant regional client mandates during the past 12 months.
A veteran of stints in Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong, Lembong has vast experience in the region’s cash management industry. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, he notched up numerous achievements including integrating a new acquisition into a bank’s cash management portfolio. Lembong also headed up corporate payments business in Asia, pioneering several market leading host-to-host deals in the region, that were uncommon at that time.
LINUS NG
UNITED OVERSEAS BANK
HEAD OF CASH PRODUCTS AND IMPLEMENTATION
When another of Singapore’s impressive stable of banks decided to join the fray in transaction banking in 2006, Ng was among the pioneers of its group transaction banking (GTB) team. Hired to build the bank’s cash management business in Asia-Pacific five years ago, Ng has since set up a product team from scratch in Singapore and launched a full suite of comprehensive cash solutions and capabilities, ranging from payables and receivables management to liquidity and account management. As a result, the bank covers a broad spectrum of customer segments from SMEs to large corporates and financial institutions.
Ng also wears a regional hat and is helping to develop the product management function in UOB’s franchise in Thailand, Malaysia, China and Indonesia, standardising processes and capabilities to ensure consistent customer experience and improve product time-to-market.
SACHIT SAHNI
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND
HEAD OF CASH MANAGEMENT PRODUCT FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA
With the acquisition of ABN Amro’s international cash management services four years ago, the UK-based bank has significantly added to its global corporate footprint and now has local clearing membership in 35 countries. Sahni leads the Southeast Asia cash management product team at RBS from India and is responsible for developing solutions for its clients in the emerging markets.
Sahni has 18 years of transaction banking experience having spent 12 years in various departments at RBS, including solution delivery, implementation management and deal management. His most notable achievement to date has been to set up the implementation management function for RBS in India, leading the team that successfully installed more than 100 banking platform lines in the country. Other important accomplishments under Sahni’s guidance include developing the services to support physical cheque requirements and the provision of virtual account solutions for clients in the region.
IWAN KAMARUDDIN
BANK NEGARA INDONESIA
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, DIVISION HEAD OF TRANSACTION BANKING SERVICES
Kamaruddin has overseen a business that has grown from its inception into one of Indonesia’s leading cash management services provider. The bank’s cash management services were originally aimed at large companies and at the oil, gas, mining, transportation, wholesale, retail, trading and other key industries. However, this year Kamaruddin began broadening its focus to include commercial segment client cash management needs by opening regional offices throughout Indonesia and by launching an e-banking platform to cater for client operational account transactions.
Currently BNI has more than 500 corporate clients and more than 8,000 commercial clients using cash management services, a number which has grown by 300%. Client operating account balances have also been driven up by 55% as a result of increasing client’s transactions, which grew 165% thanks to the bank’s various corporate e-banking channels. BNI forecasts that the platform will handle more than three million transactions in 2011.
W. ADJI WIBOWO
CIMB
REGIONAL HEAD OF TRANSACTION BANKING
Wibowo has a key role overseeing CIMB’s cash franchise in Southeast Asia from his base in Jakarta for CIMB, one of a handful of genuine regional players whose network covers Thailand, Malaysia Singapore and Indonesia. Assuming the role of regional head of transaction banking in late 2009, Wibowo has overseen substantial growth of his team. He has also helped increase the bank’s revenues and client base to just less than 14,000 top-tier clients, more than 40,000 middle market clients and in excess of 250,000 SME clients.
Bringing to bear more than 20 years of banking experience, Wibowo has been instrumental in setting up and then expanding the bank’s first regional business in the space of less than a year, and launching several major initiatives. He also played an important role in setting up the bank’s cash management businesses in Korea, Thailand and Vietnam for his previous employer, Deutsche Bank.
