Narayanan Somasundaram and Cathy Chan

UBS AG (UBSN) named Matthew Hanning as the head of its Asia-Pacific investment-banking unit, replacing Matthew Grounds, who will focus on the Swiss bank’s Australian operation.

Hanning, 46, will become head of corporate-client solutions for the region and also join UBS’s investment-banking executive committee, according to a memo to employees yesterday that was confirmed by Rob Stewart, a Hong Kong-based spokesman.

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Jeremy Grant

Singapore’s three biggest banks are ramping up hiring to capture a surge in demand from western multinationals wanting to use local banks – rather than global rivals – as they expand in the fast-growing markets of Southeast Asia.

Cathy Chan

JPMorgan (JPM) Chase & Co. named Rohit Chatterji to lead mergers and acquisitions for Asia excluding Japan as Rob Sivitilli resigned from the post after 18 years at the biggest U.S. bank.

Sivitilli will leave the industry and relocate to Florida to be closer with his family, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Chatterji, who was most recently co-head of banking in India, will move to Singapore to take up his new role, the document showed. Marie Cheung, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan in Hong Kong, confirmed the contents of the memo.

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Maud van Gaal

ABN Amro Group NV, the Dutch state-owned bank, will cut about 100 jobs as it exits equity derivatives and shutters its Asian markets business.

About half of the roles are support functions, Arien Bikker, a spokesman for the Amsterdam-based bank, said by telephone. ABN Amro will also stop offering its own structured products, he said.

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The amount of private wealth held by households globally surged more than 14% to $152 trillion (£90tn) last year, boosted mainly by rising stock markets.

Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, led the surge with a 31% jump to $37tn, a report by Boston Consulting Group says.

The number of millionaire households also rose sharply.

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Neil Gough

HONG KONG – Goldman Sachs is ramping up its mergers and acquisitions team in Asia amid a surge in deal volume in the region, according to an internal memo sent on Thursday.

As part of a reshuffling, the bank appointed Richard Campbell-Breeden to the newly created position of vice chairman of the investment banking division for Asia, excluding Japan. Mr. Campbell-Breeden, who has been at the bank since 1989, had been the head of deal-making in the region since 2011.

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