Former actor James Lye joins Standard Chartered bank in senior role

Standard Chartered on Thursday (Oct 20) announced the appointment of James Lye as its global head of international banking with effect from Nov 1.

In this newly created role, Lye will be based in Singapore where he will lead the group’s international banking team and drive “focused execution to turbocharge the bank’s international banking business”.

He will report to the bank’s global head of affluent clients, Raymond Ang, as well as Samir Subberwal, head of consumer, private and business banking for Asia. Subberwal is also global head of digital business.

International banking is currently offered by Standard Chartered in four of the bank’s cross-border hubs, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and Jersey.

In its press statement, the bank underscored a growing need among affluent clients to manage their wealth across different jurisdictions due to increasing international and intergenerational mobility – a “trend that is here to stay”, according to Subberwal.

He also noted the bank has doubled its international banking team in the last three years. Subberwal said Standard Chartered will continue to enhance its international banking proposition through investments in digitalisation.

“Our international banking proposition answers clients’ cross-border wealth management needs. It complements the suite of affluent banking services that serves clients across Asia, Africa and the Middle East and differentiates Standard Chartered as a truly international bank. I am looking forward to having James on board to lead and take the business to greater heights,” commented Ang.

Lye, a former Mediacorp actor, brings over 20 years of banking experience to Standard Chartered.

He was most recently head of markets for Citibank International Personal Bank Singapore, a business unit of Citi which specialises in offshore investment and wealth management products, servicing high-net-worth individuals living outside of Singapore.

In his previous role at Citi, Lye was responsible for around 300 bankers.

Standard Chartered highlighted that Lye’s tenure with Citi has “seen him grow his career through various individual client relationship and product roles to regional team leadership roles”.