Francois Verlaine, managing director and head of ASEAN & South Asia for financing and securities services at Standard Chartered, won Global Custodian’s fourth annual Asia-Pacific Industry Person of the Year award last night following a live vote from attendees at the Leaders in Custody event.
Verlaine took to the stage and thanked colleagues and his peers for the recognition, as well as applauding his fellow nominees for the honour.
Verlaine was one of four shortlisted for the award alongside Alvin Chia of Northern Trust, Rehan Ahmed of Marketnode, and Wai Mei Hong of JP Morgan.
Widely regarded as a leading figure in Asia’s securities services landscape, Verlaine’s nomination reflects both his leadership at Standard Chartered and his wider industry contribution over the past 12 months.
Under his leadership, Standard Chartered has broadened and strengthened its securities services franchise across ASEAN and South Asia, expanding beyond its traditional global custodian and broker-dealer base into investor, asset owner and insurance segments.
His tenure has also coincided with strong industry recognition, including consistent performances in Global Custodian’s Agent Banks in Emerging Markets surveys, where several ASEAN markets have ranked among both global and local outperformers.
Since joining Standard Chartered in 2013, Verlaine has held a series of senior roles, including leading strategy and new business development for securities services. Prior to this, he spent more than eight years at JP Morgan in product, sales and strategic business development roles across investor services, following an early career in strategy consulting.