Lord Adair Turner, formerly one of the UK's top regulators, will chair digital bank OakNorth as it marches towards a potential IPO. The Softbank-backed business lender has loaned around £10bn to date, it said in a 27 December statement, and is now bolstering its ranks as it looks to scale up further. Turner led markets watchdog the Financial Services Authority through the 2008 global crisis, before heading up the government's Pensions Commission and lobby group the Confederation of British Industry.

BNP Paribas is looking to build out its equities business in the Asia Pacific region, hiring former Credit Suisse dealmaker Lap Liang, according to reports. Liang, who spent more than six years at the Swiss bank, will join in Hong Kong to lead BNP Paribas's strategic equity group, Bloomberg reported.