Private banks have spent years building more sophisticated investment platforms, DPM businesses and fund-selection capabilities. Now, some of that investment talent is moving in the other direction.

The latest example is Lina Lim, the former head of funds and discretionary for wealth and premier solutions at HSBC Hong Kong, who has moved to BlackRock to lead commercialisation for its Citi Portfolio Solutions business in Asia Pacific. 

Lim is not the first senior private banking investment specialist to make the move into asset management, and she is unlikely to be the last. APB data show that about 20 senior investment decision-makers across fund selection, DPM, and private markets teams have moved from private banks to asset management firms this year.

For asset managers, the attraction is fairly clear. As they develop more customised solutions for wealth clients, they need people who understand how private banks actually make investment decisions – from fund selection and portfolio construction to how RMs sell investment solutions, while also having a sense of what end clients want and how they think about their portfolios.

In that sense, hiring senior private banking investment specialists may be less about adding another headcount and more about buying a missing piece of the wealth puzzle.

It also suggests that the lines between fund managers and wealth managers are becoming blurred, with private banks co-creating investment solutions with asset managers, another sign of a changing relationship.

Ultimately, that is not necessarily a bad thing. If banks and asset managers can combine their respective expertise to build better solutions for clients, the economics can work for both sides, and, more importantly, potentially lead to better investment outcomes for clients.

There is a talent angle too. Senior private-banking investment specialists are already well paid. If asset managers are increasingly competing for this expertise, are they offering comparable packages?

And if so, what does that say about how highly the asset management industry now values wealth management experience?

Perhaps the most interesting question is whether this becomes a two-way talent market. Will more private bank investment specialists move to asset managers as the latter build out their wealth businesses? 

And could the reverse also happen, with asset management professionals moving into banks as private wealth platforms become more involved in designing and developing investment solutions?

The client relationship may remain firmly with the private bank. But the investment proposition behind that relationship is becoming much more of a shared space.

These questions on talent flow and co-creation will be among the many topics slated for discussion at the upcoming APB Summit this week in Hong Kong and Singapore.