Former Philippine Stock Exchange president Hans Sicat was appointed as the new country head of the local unit of Dutch financial institution ING Bank N.V., replacing Consuelo Garcia who will retire after 26 years with the bank.
ING Bank said in a statement Sicat would join the bank mid-August to ensure a smooth transition upon Garcia’s retirement on Nov. 16.
Sicat, who headed PSE for six years until May 2017, brings with him more than two decades of experience as an investment banker, having worked for Citigroup and its predecessor firms Citicorp and Salomon Brothers in the Philippines, Hong Kong and New York City.
A trained mathematician and economist, Sicat has been involved in the global capital market for about three decades.
He has held various external positions, such as independent director of Serica Balanced Fund and Master Fund (a hedge fund), member of Euromoney Institutional Investor Asia advisory board; independent director of the Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp.; member of the board of trustee of Securities Investors Protection Fund; chairman of the emerging market working group of the World Federation of Exchanges; and executive in residence of the Asian Institute of Management.
Garcia has been ING Bank’s country manager and head of clients for almost nine years.
She joined the Dutch financial institution in 1991 as head of financial markets, where she steered the bank to a dominant position in market making of Philippine global high yield and credit derivatives and as a top arranger for local debt capital markets.
Garcia played a pivotal role in the divestment of the branch international private banking and asset management businesses pursuant to the bank’s global strategy to focus on commercial and investment banking.
She developed the Philippine business into an award-winning franchise, recognized consistently by other industry groups.
“ING is grateful to Ms. Garcia for her engaging leadership style and the entrepreneurship that she promoted at ING Bank Manila. She always put our clients first. We will miss her dearly and wish her all the best for her well-deserved retirement. We are fortunate to have found a worthy successor in Mr. Hans Sicat,” said Gerrit Stoelinga, chief executive of ING Wholesale Banking Asia.
