(Bloomberg) -- Lloyds Banking Group Plc named Oliver Brinkmann chief executive officer of its Asian commercial banking division as the firm rebuilds its operations in the region after retreating in the wake of the financial crisis.
Brinkmann, who’s worked in the region for more than 15 years, starts in Singapore on Nov. 21 and reports to Mark Grant, managing director of Lloyds’s international operations, the bank said in a statement Wednesday. He was most recently head of debt capital markets and corporate finance in northern Asia for Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong, and prior to that was the German firm’s chief operating officer for China. He succeeds Stephen Skulley, who is leaving the bank.
Lloyds designated Singapore its Asian hub in 2014 and formally opened an office the following year, consolidating its remaining regional operations in the city-state after exiting Australia and Hong Kong. The commercial bank has been growing in the region and aims to double its Singapore workforce to about 80 staff this year. Still, the bank has a far smaller presence than before the financial crisis, when it retreated from almost all its non-U.K. businesses after the British government bailed out the company.
“Oliver’s appointment represents a further, important investment” in the region, Grant said in the statement. “We are well placed to meet the needs of our clients in Asia looking to invest in the U.K. and Europe and those of our international clients seeking to invest in Asia.”
The Asian growth contrasts with CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio’s efforts to deepen job and cost cuts in the U.K. after the nation voted to leave the European Union.
Brinkmann joined Deutsche Bank in 2004 as the Shanghai-based head of corporate banking for North Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile, before being promoted to China chief operating officer two years later. He graduated from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, according to LinkedIn.
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