A year after its full merger, vast changes have swept through the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYMellon) operations in the Asia-Pacific. The bank has taken a pro-active stance in the region, in recognition of its much greater contribution to the group’s bottomlines.
While many of the bank’s competitors have attempted to create vast financial supermarkets by entering investment banking, asset management, wealth management or the trade finance arena, the group focused on its key strengths and has been amply rewarded.
Its business model has made it a reliable institution to deal with, following the uncertainty that has swept through major financial institutions.
In the middle of this month, they announced the appointment of Chris Sturdy as chairman of the Asia-Pacific region. It is a big appointment for Sturdy, who has been the head of the bank’s depositary receipt (DR) business since 2003. It was under his leadership that the company’s DR business grew considerably year-on-year and significantly expanded its reach in the Asia-Pacific, especially in key issuing markets such as India and China. Michael Cole-Fontayn has been appointed as his successor to head the bank’s DR business.
Sturdy, who will now be based in Hong Kong, will lead the development and implementation of the company’s business strategy in the Asia-Pacific region and will chair its Asia-Pacific management committee. He will report to Ronald P O’Hanley, the vice-chairman of the bank and executive committee member, who is responsible for overseeing the Asia Pacific region, and also to Torry Berntsen, chief client management officer.
Sturdy joined the bank in 1982 and has spent more than a decade in key roles in London. For more than eight years, he has been developing valuable new business for the company in the Asia-Pacific, cultivating extensive client relationships and gaining valuable experience and insight into countries such as Japan, China, India and Australia.
The success of BNY Mellon’s DR business in the region has been phenomenal, even as it has matched Citi’s performance over the years. While Citi has bagged some of the biggest and the most prestigious deals, owing to its ability to offer other types of services such as investment banking, BNY Mellon’s focus has never sidetracked from providing its clients very high quality service.
Dynamic business
It has built an extremely professional team in the region led by Chris Kearns and its strengths are obvious in major markets such as China and India. Bob Kelly, who is chief executive officer of the bank, summed up the promise that the group holds for the region. “Hosting the world’s largest population and its fastest growing economies, Asia-Pacific continues to present us with one of the greatest growth potentials for our company.”
The bank’s clients in the region include some of the world’s largest financial institutions, fifteen central banks, as well as several key sovereign wealth funds. According to Kelley, while the business of the bank has grown in a substantial way and still continues grow rapidly, the unrealized potential remains far greater.
Cole-Fontayn, who replaces Sturdy in the DR business, joined the group in 1984 and worked in various banking groups before joining the DR division in 1992. In 1993, he moved to Hong Kong, where he led the division’s Asia-Pacific business for seven years. He returned to London in 2000 and ran the DR division’s Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) business for three years, before taking charge of business development in 2003.
During his tenure, BNY’s DR business won more than 60% of all new business opportunities and expanded deeply in emerging and frontier markets around the world. He will report to Brian Rogan, chief executive officer of issuer and treasury services for BNY Mellon.
The DR division remains one of the bank’s most dynamic and fastest growing businesses. Rogan says that with Cole-Fontayn, it will be led by someone who has spent his entire career in the organization and whose market knowledge and leadership abilities are sure to translate into concrete results for clients and growth for employees.
