30% of employees from Singapore Office of RBS Coutts Quit!

[MarrickG]

THE banking industry has been stunned by the mass resignation of about 70 employees from the Singapore office of RBS Coutts - about one-third of its staff.

It is the biggest defection in the industry in years.

Sources say many of the employees have been poached by rival private bank BSI in what could be a sign of a resurgence in the private banking sector here.

'I haven't seen anything of this scale even during the boom times,' said one headhunter. Local staff numbers at RBS Coutts, a mid-sized private banking player, will fall from 250 to 180.

'It's a remarkable number. At the same time, it's a very concrete sign that globally, financial firms believe that Asia is going to be the engine of growth for their business,' said Mr David Powe, managing director of search firm Strategic Search Partners.

Sources say a large number of the defectors are joining Mr Hanspeter Brunner, former co-chief of RBS Coutts, who recently quit to join BSI, a Swiss private bank owned by Italian insurer Generali.