CIMB Singapore names three new business heads to replace axed trio

CIMB Singapore on Tuesday announced replacements for the three banking heads that were cut, in another internal memo to Singapore staff seen by The Business Times.

The new appointments are: Merlyn Tsai as head of consumer banking, Singapore; Benjamin Tan Wee Chuan as head of commercial banking, Singapore; and Foo Tsiang Wei, head of corporate and investment banking, Singapore.

They will replace Josandi Thor, Yong Jiunn Run and Lai Ven-Li, respectively.

The latest appointments will take effect from Dec 1, 2020, according to the memo sent by Singapore chief executive officer (CEO) Victor Lee.

Mr Lee wrote: "We have always maintained a strong internal leadership bench to support the group's vision."

The incoming consumer-banking head Ms Tsai is CIMB Singapore's current head of digital, and joined the bank in July 2020. She will take on an expanded portfolio and helm consumer banking as well as customer experience, as the bank "doubles down on wealth management and digitalising our retail banking franchise", wrote Mr Lee in the memo.

Prior to her role at CIMB, Ms Tsai had been senior vice-president at Fullerton Financial Holdings since 2016, focusing on digital lending and microfinance as part of her portfolio.

She is a former colleague of Mr Lee, who was Fullerton's executive vice-president from 2016.

In the memo, Mr Lee wrote that Ms Tsai has over 23 years of experience in local and international financial institutions, with leadership experience in preferred banking and, most recently, in micro-lending and digital banking.

As for Mr Tan, he is the head of Asean banking and strategy management in group commercial banking. He will retain his current portfolio even as he takes on the role as head of commercial banking, Singapore.

According to the memo, he has over 10 years of experience with small and medium-sized enterprises and medium enterprises in Singapore, Taiwan and the Middle East.

Finally, Mr Foo, who is now head of investment banking at CIMB Singapore, will be appointed head of corporate and investment banking, Singapore. This comes as the bank merges corporate banking, investment banking as well as loan markets and syndication, said Mr Lee in the memo.

Mr Foo joined CIMB in May this year, and before that he was executive director of DBS's institutional banking group, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He has over 20 years of corporate and investment banking experience from banks with a "deep and diverse" experience in real estate and growing a pan-Asean business, the memo stated.

The CEO added in the memo, addressed to #teamCIMB, that he was "disappointed" to see the contents of an earlier internal memo make its rounds in the media with "various unsubstantiated reports" about why the three outgoing senior managers were leaving.

"To clear any doubt on this matter, I would like to categorically state that their departure was in no way a reflection of their work or commitment to CIMB, and it was therefore highly regrettable that they were thrust into the spotlight and subjected to speculation in such a manner," Mr Lee said.

"Their departure was due to the streamlining exercise to optimise our structure and reduce the spans and layers of leaderships as part of the necessity of having to build a more cost-effective organisation."

He added that the three outgoing senior managers were "important members of our team" and "instrumental in building and driving our business in Singapore".

Sources had told The Business Times last week that Mr Lee had been seeking to restructure his senior management team and hiring people he had worked with previously. It was also said that at least one in the axed trio could not see eye to eye with the CEO on the business direction.

CIMB has said it does not comment on internal memos.

READ MORE: CIMB Singapore axes three business heads amid shake-up