Bank of Singapore has opened a new 75-strong regional office in Dubai.
The branch, located in the Dubai International Financial Centre, pictured above, is part of a push by Bank of Singapore as it seeks to usher in “a new growth phase in its history in the Middle East”, it said in a statement.
As reported here in November, the bank is bidding to cater for wealthy expats and locals in the Gulf.
Kirit Chauhan will take the helm of the new office as market head for Middle East, Sub-continent and Africa, supported by 75 employees. Chauhan has close to 30 years of experience in banking and finance, and has held several senior positions including managing director of JP Morgan’s India offshore team and Standard Chartered Bank’s head of origination and client coverage in Qatar.
He reports to Derrick Tan, Bank of Singapore’s global market head for Malaysia, Brunei, Japan, Sub-Continent and Middle East. Bank of Singapore has registered significant growth in the Middle East region – doubling its assets under management and growing its net new money by almost five times in the last three years. It also secutred the Category 4 licence in November 2016, which led to the setting up of the DIFC branch.
20 years in Dubai
Bank of Singapore’s presence in the Middle East goes back over 20 years. It opened its representative office in Dubai in 1996, before the DIFC was set up in 2004.
According to the UAE embassy in Singapore, the number of Singapore companies working in UAE has reached more than 350, operating in the field of infrastructure, real state, communications, transportation, water treatment, information technology and trades.
Bank of Singapore’s total assets under management shot to US$79bn at the end of December 2016, following the successful transfer of US$13bn in AUM from Barclays Wealth and Investment Management.
