UBS Group is set to hire about 50 bankers for its Hong Kong wealth management operation, reported Bloomberg citing Asia Pacific wealth management co-head Amy Lo.
This comes after the North Asia business contributed record revenues last year, noted the news agency.
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Amy Lo said: “A lot of the hiring will be focused on high net-worth because for the last few years, we’ve been focusing so much on ultra-high net-worth and billionaires.”
The rise was supported by activity in Hong Kong’s initial public offering market and a recovery of assets lost during the integration of Credit Suisse Group.
“During the beginning of the integration we had some outflow, it’s good to see also some of the win-back. Clients see everything is settled.”
The integration phase had led to departures among former Credit Suisse staff covering North Asia.
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By GlobalDataIn 2024, Iqbal Khan, co-president of global wealth management, moved to Hong Kong.
While global net client inflows at UBS’s main wealth unit dropped to $8.5bn in last year’s fourth quarter, Asia Pacific drew $6bn in new assets over the same period, helping to offset outflows elsewhere.
The bank has recently taken possession of new premises at the International Gateway Center in West Kowloon, with plans to open later this year, positioning itself closer to the Greater Bay Area linking Hong Kong, Macau and several mainland Chinese cities.
Lo also noted plans for “selective” expansion on the Chinese mainland in wealth management, where around 200 employees currently serve domestic clients.
Further growth may come through local partnerships, though details were not disclosed.
UBS operates an Asia Pacific team based in Switzerland with about 130 staff, roughly half of whom speak Mandarin.
That group has managed to double its assets under management over three years and expects to do so again by 2030.
The bank has increased its scrutiny of client wealth sources and uses external firms for documentation checks.
Lo acknowledged ongoing efforts to improve internal processes: “If we can’t onboard new clients, we won’t be able to achieve the $37.9bn of Asia Pacific inflows in the third quarter,” she said. “Quite a lot of them are new assets.”
