David Lau has been appointed as the new head of global investment banking for JPMorgan Hong Kong, replacing an executive fired because of connections to an investigation surrounding the company’s hiring in Asia.
According to an internal memo sent to employees last week seen by The Wall Street Journal, in addition to Lau’s new position, he will continue working as head of China corporate finance.
The Wall Street Journal were also informed by Carl Chien, J.P. Morgan’s co-head of Greater China banking that Lau worked on the initial public offerings for Huatai Securities Co, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and China Galaxy Securities Co.
Lau is replacing Catherine Leung who served as a vice chairwoman of Asia investment banking but she has not been accused of wrongdoing. She worked with Todd Martin, the former vice chairman of Asia Pacific investment banking who also left because of the probe.
Prosecutors and regulators in the US are investigating how hiring is done within JPMorgan, particularly whether the bank gave jobs to Chinese government officials’ children in exchange for lucrative investment-banking mandates.
It was also reported last week that JPMorgan named Esther Yeh as head of global investment banking for Taiwan, who was formerly a senior client executive for this department.
