BlackRock has appointed Tomoko Ueda to the position of Chief Operating Officer for Asia Pacific, effective September 3.

This appointment expands the role played by Ms. Ueda, who oversees all business operations in the region and leads the Finance, Corporate Strategy & Development teams to drive growth and operational efficiency. She reports to Head of Asia Pacific Susan Chan and will relocate to Hong Kong from Tokyo.

Ms. Ueda joined BlackRock in 2022 as Asia Pacific Head of Corporate Strategy & Development to formulate the firm’s strategy and execute against strategic priorities, while pursuing partnership opportunities in Asia Pacific. Before joining the firm, she was responsible for Strategy and Finance at Nikko Asset Management in Japan. She has had multiple leadership roles serving clients in the investment banking operations of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in the UK and Japan.

Tomoko succeeds James Raby, who is relocating to New York to take on the role of Global Head of Compliance.

Susan Chan, BlackRock’s Head of Asia Pacific, said: “As we power into our next chapter of growth in Asia Pacific, I’m thrilled to appoint Tomoko as Chief Operating Officer. She has demonstrated exceptional leadership in driving BlackRock’s growth initiatives throughout the region to align with the structural changes taking place in the global economy. These market forces – be they digital disruption, demographic divergence, transition to a low-carbon economy or geopolitical fragmentation – are presenting us with opportunities to share our expertise and insights with clients and investors, as they rethink their portfolios to generate returns. We are uniquely positioned to accelerate our momentum in this part of the world, and I’m confident Tomoko will have tremendous positive impact on our long-term success.”

Ms. Chan added: “James has been a dedicated and passionate leader. Beyond the direct impact he’s had on our business, he has mentored many of our young and talented professionals. On behalf of everyone in the BlackRock Asia-Pacific team, I wish to thank James for his great partnership over the past three years and wish him every success in the new role.”

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BlackRock set new growth records in the U.S. ($97 billion vs. $82 billion in 2014) and Europe ($34 billion vs. $20 billion in 2014), and won 42% of flows in both markets. The overall industry expanded at a record-breaking $347bn in 2015.

Mark Wiedman, Global Head of iShares at BlackRock, commented: “Despite lacklustre equity markets in 2015, the ETF industry set a new growth record of $347bn. Institutional and retail investors are using ETFs more and more, whether as a tool to express a view on almost any financial market or for long-term core investments.”

More investors use bond ETFs to access fixed income markets

Wiedman continued,“Bond ETFs had an exceptionally strong 2015, growing at 22% organic growth rate. Bond ETFs enable retail and institutional investors to access the bond markets at known, transparent prices and with impressive liquidity. iShares won $50bn globally, 54% of all new flows into bond ETFs. During quiet times and volatile times in 2015, iShares bond ETFs performed as clients have come to expect.”

Investors accelerate use of ETFs as substitutes for futures and swaps

“Institutional investors accelerated their use of ETFs as substitutes for futures and swaps in 2015. As banks’ balance sheet costs have ratcheted up, so too has the cost of using futures and swaps. ETFs are now often a more efficient substitute for major global equity indices and for bond indices like credit derivatives. For instance, S&P 500 futures averaged 56 bps over the last year, whereas the same exposure through one of our ETFs only cost 7 bps[2].”

Susan Chan, Head of Asia Pacific iShares at BlackRock, added: “Across the Asia Pacific region, a broad range of institutions increased their usage of ETFs – insurers, sovereign wealth funds, asset and wealth managers. Retail demand deepened in our fast-growing Australian business.”

“Asia Pacific investors continued to turn to our two global product lines for liquidity and access to global markets. Asia Pacific investors purchased $12 billion in U.S. and European-domiciled iShares in 2015.”

Jon Howie, Head of iShares Australia commented: “In Australia, the adoption of ETFs by self-managed super funds and individual investors continued to grow in 2015, reflecting their efficiency as a way to build diversified investment portfolios. This has boosted the liquidity of ETFs on the ASX, which in turn, is contributing to greater institutional usage of ETFs in Australia.”

iShares global AUM exceeded US$1.1 trillion as of December 31, 2015.

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[1] All data as of 12/31/15.   Source: BlackRock.
[2] Sources: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, as of 11/20/2015.

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