Michael Bonhote

RBC Dexia Investor Services’ domestic head of sales and client relationships, Michael Bonhote, will end his tenure with the custodian, and the financial services industry, this week.

Michael Bonhote will retire to Falls Creek in country Victoria on Friday, confirmed David Travers, managing director of RBC Dexia’s custody operation in Australia, after almost three years with the custodian and two decades in financial services.

Bonhote joined the custodian in mid-2007 after working as head of product and marketing at Intech (now Ibbotson) and in senior roles at Deutsche Bank Asset Management and Macquarie Bank.

The 50-year old will not be immediately replaced at RBC Dexia, and Travers will assume responsibility for the custodian’s distribution in Australia and report directly to global head of sales Tony Johnson in London.

“I’ll engage with the team from a sales perspective…and I’ll report straight to Tony,” Travers said, explaining that there was formal requirement to appoint a domestic head of sales following last year’s restructure of RBC Dexia to streamline its regional businesses into a single global entity.

“Operations run globally, IT runs globally, sales and client services runs globally,” Travers said, “we previously didn’t have a consistent approach in every geography.”   But he did not rule out hiring a senior salesperson into the team in the future.

“I’ll look at how we need to structure the team and get an appreciation of what goes on. But for now Michael’s not going to be replaced.”

Bonhote was assisted in Sydney by current business development manager Keith Watson and, previously, Rob Chowdhury, and Wes Palmer, a former NAB Asset Servicing executive whom he hired in 2008, in Melbourne.

Travers said Bonhote contributed to securing custody contracts from HSBC Bank Australia, Standard Life Investments and Omega Global Investors, and maintaining the relationships with foundation client Perpetual and existing clients Treasury Group and Goldman Sachs JBWere Asset Management.