Despite the impending job cuts worldwide, the major bank UBS is recruiting new employees in the US wealth management business. In the first half of the year alone, the Swiss institute hired 50 consultants there, including from Bank of America, First Republic Bank, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. 30 of these were in the period after the announcement of the Credit Suisse takeover in mid-March.
Serving millionaires and billionaires is UBS’s core business. “The US is the largest wealth market in the world and it has seen unprecedented growth in recent years,” UBS wealth manager Iqbal Khan told Reuters. “Investing and growing our business in this region is a top priority,” said Khan. On June 12, the day the most significant bank takeover since the financial crisis was completed, Khan met with wealthy clients in Southern California. He also led an internal event with top performing client advisors.
With the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, UBS becomes the second largest wealth manager in the world. While the institute occupies a leading position in Europe and Asia, it is only the fourth-largest provider in the business with wealthy private customers in the USA. In the US, the number of financial advisors has increased by more than a quarter in the past three years. At the end of March, UBS had a total of 6,147 advisors in the Americas region. The money house did not want to disclose how much of this is attributable to the USA.
In the US, UBS’s wealth management business will not change as a result of the acquisition, as Credit Suisse withdrew from the US private banking business in 2015. According to an insider, UBS could cut around 35,000 jobs at the two banks as part of the CS integration. Global banks are increasingly investing in the wealth management business, which provides more stable returns than, say, investment banking or trading. Most institutes focus on the fastest-growing segment of the super-rich.
This group of people with more than $30 million in investable wealth is expected to grow 10 percent over the next five years, said John Mathews, head of UBS wealth management in the Americas. “Our focus has been on attracting and retaining consultants experienced in mentoring this group,” said Mathews. According to a study by Credit Suisse, between 2019 and 2021 the number of people with net worth of more than $50 million grew by more than 50 percent to 264,200 globally. More than half of them live in the USA.