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Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f69c69fa-9245-11e3-801800144feab7de.html#ixzz2svkHcvyA has suspended two bankers while it investigates the hiring of the daughter of the chairman of Tianhe Chemicals, which is due to go public in a $1bn listing in Hong Kong later this year that the Swiss bank is working on. Joseph Chee, head of global capital markets for Asia, who is based in Hong Kong, and Sharlyn Wu, a more junior banker in the capital markets team, have been placed on leave while the lender investigates whether any internal processes were breached in her hiring, according to a person familiar with the situation.
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The bank is comfortable with the timing of her hiring and is just dotting every i and crossing every t, the person said. Mr Chee and Ms Wu could not immediately be reached for comment. UBS declined to comment. Joyce Wei, the daughter of Tianhe chairman Wei Qi, had previously worked at JPMorgan, which withdrew from a role in the IPO last month because of the investigation it is facing in the US over its hiring of so-called princelings the sons and daughters of political leaders and state-owned company executives. Ms Wei is technically not a princeling as Tianhe is a privately owned company, so her hiring would not fall foul of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which applies to government-related entities only. At the time of JPMorgans withdrawal, a rival bank highlighted the timing of Ms Weis hiring by UBS. However, the Swiss bank had been handed its role in the Tianhe listing before Ms Wei joined in October last year, a person close to UBS said at the time. A

banker at another institution close to the chemicals group also insisted that there was nothing improper in the fact or timing of Ms Weis hiring. The UBS bankers suspension, which was first reported by IFR Asia, came as JPMorgan was forced to defend Jamie Dimon, its chief executive, in a report that he had been asked directly by a leading Chinese regulator for a favour in getting a young job applicant a role at the US bank. Xiang Junbo, the Chinese insurance regulator, introduced Mr Dimon to his interpreter at a meeting in 2012, saying she was the daughter of a close friend and a potential JPMorgan employee, according to emails reported by the New York Times. Our CEO played no role in the hiring decision, did not weigh in, and did not follow up, Joseph Evangelisti, a spokesman for Mr Dimon at JPMorgan, said in a statement. It is his normal practice to pass on referrals without advice to those involved in hiring. The young applicant, who the New York Times did not name, works at JPMorgan, the newspaper reported. It added there was no suspicion of wrongdoing by Mr Dimon. The newspaper has quoted liberally from emails to and from JPMorgan staff in Hong Kong about various hirings. None has been named or accused of any wrongdoing directly by the paper and none has been suspended by the bank.