Indian talent has been at the forefront of Singapore’s finance sector for the past 20 years. Banks in Singapore have turned to the subcontinent to plug skill shortages in technology and to help expand their Indian coverage desks in private banking, for example.
But it’s not just in wealth and tech where Indians are playing leading roles in Singaporean financial services. We looked through online public profiles to find senior Singapore-based investment bankers and traders who started their careers in India. Here’s a selection.
1. Rohit Chatterji
Chatterji started out in 1993 as an account manager covering media and telecoms for ICICI Securities in India. He now describes himself online as a “lifer with J.P. Morgan so far”. This is no exaggeration. He first joined the bank 19 years ago in Singapore and (aside from a four-year stint in Mumbai) he has moved between Singapore and Hong Kong in various senior roles ever since. Chatterji made MD in 2006 and became head of South and South East Asia M&A and corporate finance. Last year he moved from head of M&A Asia ex-Japan into his current role of head of banking, South East Asia.
2. Neha Bakshi
Bakshi shifted to Singapore with Deutsche Bank in 2002 after receiving her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore). She then rose rapidly up the ranks at the German firm, becoming a director in 2006 and holding several senior roles in both Singapore and Hong Kong, including head of North Asia rates structuring, head of Asia commodities asset structuring, and head of third party sales coverage for South Asia. Last year Bakshi joined Standard Chartered in Singapore as a managing director and head of private side structuring.
3. Piyush Gupta
There’s more than one Piyush Gupta in town. This one isn’t the boss of DBS, he’s head of technology, media and telecoms (TMT) investment banking for India and South East Asia at Deutsche Bank. Gupta, now a managing director, spent three years at Morgan Stanley at the start of his career, but has been with Deutsche ever since. Like many Indian bankers, he holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad).
4. Varun Matta
Matta slotted into an associate job at DBS in 2005 after graduating with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore). “Experienced deal maker” Matta then worked in M&A advisory in Macquarie’s TMT team between 2006 and 2010, according to his public profile. Since then he’s been with Credit Suisse and has now risen to director rank in its investment banking division in Singapore.
5. Mayank Navalakha
Standard Chartered aside, foreign banks don’t base many international heads in Singapore. Navalakha is an exception – since May this year he’s been leading FX and PM options at ANZ globally. Twelve years ago, however, Navalakha wasn’t even working in the banking sector. Armed with an engineering degree, he began his career as a senior applications engineer at Oracle. From 2006 to 2016 Navalakha was ensconced at Barclays, latterly as FX options head for Asia.
6. Nilesh Jasani
Jasani is a leading Asian equities specialist and is currently the Singapore-based head of Asia research at Jefferies, a firm he joined in 2010 when he started a 15-month stint as local CEO. Before that Jasani was at Credit Suisse as research head in Taipei and then India, according to his profile. He spent his early career as an Asian strategist at HSBC and Credit Lyonnais Securities.
7. Siddhartha Hari
Hari got his banking career up and running in the structured products group at ICICI in 2002. Unlike many other Indian expats in Singapore, however, he then stayed on in India, working for Deutsche for seven years and eventually becoming a director in global markets structuring. Hari transferred to Singapore with Deutsche in January 2011 as head of credit structuring, South Asia. Barclays poached him just five months later and he’s now its APAC head of strategic equity and structured finance.
8. Sid Mathur
Mathur’s career followed a similar early path to Hari’s – his first job was at ICICI in 2000 and he then did a five-year stint at a global bank in India (as an FX and fixed income strategist at J.P. Morgan). In 2006 the American bank relocated him to Singapore in a similar role, and his career soon took off in the city state. Mathur joined UBS in 2009 and became head of emerging markets Asia rates and FX strategy, according to his profile. Since 2013 he’s been head of emerging markets FX and local markets strategy for Asia at Citi.
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