HONG KONG (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank has appointed Beng-Hong Lee as China head of its institutional clients group, a business unit that distributes fixed-income and equities products to institutional investors, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Lee, who joined Deutsche Bank in 2003 and was most recently its global markets head in China, will take up the newly created role with immediate effect and will continue to be based in Shanghai, said the memo sent to the bank's internal staff.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong confirmed the content of the memo.

Stefan Hoops, global co-head of institutional client group, said with China's capital market and its linkages with global markets growing at a rapid pace the new position would help it tap the growing demand for products from institutional investors.

"We have thus decided to be one of the first international banks to lead this effort from Shanghai rather than from offshore," he said in a separate statement to Reuters.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Sunil Nair)