Altius Associates, a private equity advisory firm with offices in London and the US, has hired a former Deutsche Bank executive to spearhead its growth plans in Singapore.
Deutsche names Asia agency sec-lending head, Citi appoints Asia commercial bank head, Axa IM adds in distribution, Alvarez & Marsal adds two directors in Beijing.
The bank is seeking to tap current trends by listing five new ETFs in Hong Kong today, including the city's first to track equities in Singapore, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Philippines is set to finalise rules for locally listed exchange-traded funds soon, and industry players are hoping for domestic and foreign investor buy-in.
Asia appears set to capture a slice of the $123 billion in expected hedge fund inflows this year, but the biggest strategies are expected to benefit the most.
The bank's db X-trackers unit is set to launch a suite of physically backed ETFs, but says its aim has always been to provide a supermarket selection and the move is not solely related to flows.
The bank is to become the second foreign custodian to enter the market from next month, with insurers tipped to be allowed to lend out their equity holdings around the same time.