Rebuilding AMP Recruits Another Ex-Credit Suisse Private Banker

Tom Burroughes

5 December 2018

Another former senior the investment firm that has been battling to recover from a major compliance scandal.

AMP has appointed Alex Wade to its group leadership team as group executive for advice, effective 7 January next year, the firm said today in a statement.

Wade will report to AMP chief executive Francesco de Ferrari, the former Credit Suisse private banking chief in Asia who went across to AMP a few weeks ago.

The move means Wade takes over from Jack Regan, who will retire from AMP after nearly 20 years at the firm.

David Akers, who has been AMP’s acting group executive for advice while Regan has been on extended leave. Akers will work with Wade to transition responsibilities and return to the advice leadership team. Blair Vernon will continue as managing director of New Zealand.

Most recently, Wade was head of developed and emerging Asia for Credit Suisse Private Banking. Wade has been with Credit Suisse for 12 years, holding other roles such as chief of staff for Asia-Pacific and head of private banking for Australia. He is experienced in financial services in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

De Ferrari, who had been at Credit Suisse for 17 years, and was head of private banking for Asia-Pacific and chief executive for Southeast Asia and frontier markets, joined AMP in August. De Ferrari succeeded Mike Wilkins, who served as interim CEO from April 2018.

AMP logged a drop in underlying profit in the first half of this year, falling to A$495 million ($365.7 million) from A$533 million for the same period a year earlier. The attributable profit, taking account of a number of costs and one-off expenses, slumped to A$115 million from A$445 million. In July, this publication reported that AMP had warned investors it expects to provide for A$290 million (after tax) in costs to remediate clients for past misconduct over advice, part of a string of scandals in the country’s financial industry. (See here for details.)