Clayton Coplestone, former head of Credit Suisse Asset Management retail in Australia and latterly in Hong Kong, has resurfaced at rival firm Deutsche.

It is understood Coplestone will be based in Hong Kong with Deutsche’s Private Client Asset Management group in a similar role to his Credit Suisse position. Coplestone left Credit Suisse in April this year and will now be working for the same firm as former colleague, Chris Larsen, who was appointed Deutsche head of retail this year. Credit Suisse has been through something of a purge of its retail expertise recently losing stalwarts Larsen and Brian Thomas, head of retail sales, in a matter of months. Thomas left Credit Suisse in the same week as Coplestone. Coplestone moved to Hong Kong in 2003 to spearhead Credit Suisse’s drive in the Asian retail funds market after several years with the firm in Australia. According to FT.com, Credit Suisse’s plans in China have suffered a setback in recent months after its first joint-venture fund there halved in value in just three months. “The fund, one of China’s biggest, saw a 51 per cent drop in assets from Rmb3.95bn to Rmb1.93bn ($US493m-$US240m) in the first quarter of this year, despite its strong investment performance and a rebound in the Chinese stock markets,” the FT.com report said. In the same report FT.com confirmed Coplestone’s resignation but said “the bank insisted his departure was unrelated to the performance of the joint venture”. Deutsche was unavailable for comment.