Nomura has appointed Ravi Raju as head of its international wealth management business in Asia, ex-Japan, as the firm aims to tap into the growing ranks of wealthy individuals in the region.

In this newly created role, Raju, who will be based in Singapore, will work closely with the firm’s global markets and investment banking businesses to develop product offerings and drive a unified solutions-led coverage effort, especially for entrepreneurs, family offices and external asset managers. From April 2020, Nomura’s wealth management business in Asia, ex-Japan, has been aligned under the firm’s wholesale division.

Raju will report to Rig Karkhanis, deputy head of global markets and head of global markets, Asia, ex-Japan, with an additional reporting line to Steve Ashley, Nomura’s head of wholesale. Raju has nearly three decades of experience in financial markets. Until recently, he was head of ultra-high-net-worth clients and global family office in Asia-Pacific at UBS.

"Raju joining us will be transformational," Karkhanis says. "His decades of experience across global platforms integrating the best of markets and investment banking for high-net-worth clients will be invaluable as he builds the business for us in Asia and extends that expertise to other global wealth management centres.”