UBS makes a senior technology hire in Singapore – and he didn’t come from a bank
UBS has hired Jean-Paul Farah as its new Singapore-based APAC technology operating manager. Farah was previously a director at KPMG, and before that led EY's Singapore intelligent automation team, which helps financial institutions implement robotics and cognitive techniques into their platforms.
UBS is not the only bank in Singapore that’s been hiring from consultancy firms – Standard Chartered is leading the way. Earlier this year Stan Chart recruited Pierre Paoli from Boston Consulting as head of strategic initiatives and took on IBM consultant Sushil Anand to lead computational and digital advisory for wealth management.
In Farah’s field, technology, the need for consultants is driven by the recent and rapid transformation of Singapore from a tech-support hub to an engineering hub. Banks such as UBS, DBS and JP Morgan are investing millions in Singapore-based projects that involve the use of emerging technology such as AI, robotics and blockchain. As a result, they need strategists like Farah to keep these expensive initiatives on track.
UBS, has been at the forefront of banks’ tech investment in Singapore. Last month, for example, it launched a new electronic pricing and trading engine in the Republic. The Swiss firm has also rolled out a new private banking system across Asia, which eases client onboarding “through a seamless digital platform”, and which forms part of a CHF1bn infrastructure overhaul.
Farah, who was educated in France, began his career as an auditor at EY in 1994. He moved to Deutsche Bank in London in 2000 and worked there for almost seven years as an auditor, latterly at senior vice president level. Farah then joined EY again, this time as a Paris-based management consultant. He relocated to Singapore in 2015 to take on his technology-focused job.
Image credit: thamerpic, Getty
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