London-headquartered Barclays has reportedly chosen a new head of private banking for Asia based in India, relatively unique location for the regional role.

Barclays has hired Nitin Singh to lead its private banking arm in Asia, according to a «Bloomberg» report citing an internal memo, based in Mumbai. In the newly created role, he will report to Barclays Private Bank CEO Jean-Christophe Gerard and APAC head Jaideep Khanna.

Singh will join the British lender in the new role on September 18.

Singh is a 20-year industry veteran and most recently worked at Mumbai-based Avendus Wealth Management. Previously, he held several leadership roles at Standard Chartered and HSBC in the UK and India.

Reshuffled Reporting Lines

As part of the appointment, Singapore head of private banking Evonne Tan will shift her reporting line from head of UK international private bank James Penny to Singh.

Also, Sandeep Das, head of private clients in India, will leave the bank to pursue another opportunity.

Mumbai as the choice of base for Barclays’ new regional private banking head is relatively unique, though numerous players are bullish about the prospects in the onshore market. Most recently, HSBC launched its India private banking unit after making an exit eight years ago.