Julius Baer has hired former JP Morgan senior private banker Rahul Malhotra as the head of its Global India and Developed Markets business.

Singapore-based Malhotra starts on 1 September, taking over from newly retired Torsten Linke to lead the onshore and offshore teams.

Malhotra's group serves clients from the Indian diaspora as well as covering Japan and the Asia team based in Switzerland.

He will report to Jimmy Lee, head of Asia-Pacific and member of the executive board at Julius Baer.

With more than 30 years of financial sector experience, Malhotra was head of Southeast Asia and previously head of South Asia at JP Morgan Private Bank for 10 years, covering clients in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and NRIs across the regions.

Malhotra was head of wealth management for Asia at Merrill Lynch and built the Global India business.

Earlier in his career, Malhotra spent 20 years in Citibank where he was based in India, Dubai, London and Singapore. At Citibank, he held various senior leadership positions including global head of NRI and head of Retail Banking for Asia.

Lee said: "I am delighted to welcome Rahul to Julius Baer, the largest foreign private bank in India. We also have an extensive and huge global India corridor for NRI. This offers tremendous opportunities for our bank on the back of a clearly defined global India strategy with a major India onshore presence.

"With our single team-based approach, Rahul will be leading his onshore and offshore teams and continue to work closely and seamlessly in serving our clients from the Indian diaspora, one of the biggest in the world."

He added: "I would also like to sincerely thank Torsten, who informed me earlier that he has decided to retire, for his many contributions to our South-East Asia and Indian businesses as well as serving as branch manager Singapore in the past years. Rahul and Torsten will be working together closely to ensure a smooth transition."