CIMB hires ex-JPMorgan veteran as wholesale bank co-head: sources

CIMB Group Holdings is hiring Novan Amirudin, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s former head of South-east Asia equity capital markets, as the co-chief for its global wholesale banking, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Novan, who resigned from JPMorgan last month, will helm the wholesale banking operations with Chu Kok Wei, who is currently group head of treasury and markets at the Malaysian lender, the people said. The country’s third-biggest bank by market value could announce the appointments as soon as in the coming weeks, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

The pair will fill the position left vacant by Omar Siddiq Amin Noer Rashid, who in January joined HSBC Holdings as chief executive officer of the Malaysian unit. 

A representative for CIMB said the bank doesn’t comment on speculative reports. Novan and Chu didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Novan, 42, worked in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia since joining JPMorgan in 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile. He became its head of ECM (equity capital markets) at the start of this year, succeeding Timothy Wee, who left the bank in 2021. Before joining JPMorgan, Novan was with accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Kuala Lumpur.

Chu, who is the president of Financial Markets Association Malaysia and vice-chairman of Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, has been with CIMB Group since 2003, according to Asifma’s website. His responsibilities at the Malaysian lender include markets, sales, trading and structuring businesses as well as the funding and liquidity management operations.