KUALA LUMPUR: Credit Suisse Group AG has appointed Helman Sitohang as its chief executive officer (CEO) for the Asia-Pacific, replacing Eric Varvel who will become chairman for the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions.

Sitohang will continue to hold his existing role as head of the investment bank for Asia-Pacific. He reports directly to the group’s CEO Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse said in a statement.

Sitohang will be based in Singapore, a shift from the traditional base of Hong Kong for the Asia-Pacific CEO. Singapore is Credit Suisse’s largest hub in the Asia-Pacific, and fourth largest location globally, after Zurich, New York and London.

All the country CEOs, heads of private banking and wealth management, heads of equities, fixed income and the investment banking department in the Asia-Pacific, as well as shared services heads in the Asia-Pacific will report to Sitohang, in addition to their functional reporting lines.

Sitohang has been with the bank since 1998. During his career with Credit Suisse, he was involved in around US$150 billion (RM491 billion) worth of mergers and acquisitions, and capital raising activities across the globe, and led the origination of many of the bank’s high-profile deals across Asia and Australia.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 24, 2014.