Tag: UBS

Swiss bank says current wealth management co-head Tom Naratil will retire, with Naureen Hassan succeeding him in the Americas.

Switzerland’s largest lender announced overnight in a statement that Iqbal Khan will become the sole president of the flagship global wealth management business following the retirement of the current co-head Tom Naratil, who departs after a 39-year career at UBS and its predecessor banks.

According to the bank, Khan is the «ideal» person to lead the business given his background as a financial and regulatory auditor, his risk management expertise, and commercial as well as client focus.

There have been rumors about changing power structures within UBS following the appointment of Colm Kelleher as chairman in April, with talk in Zurich financial circles indicating the possibility of Khan stepping up to replace current group CEO Ralph Hamers at some point.

The step will be effective on 3 October 2022. Besides the co-leadership of the global wealth management business, Naratil is president and CEO of UBS Americas and he will be succeeded by Naureen Hassan in those posts, while also becoming a member of the group executive board.

Hassan joins the bank from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she was first vice president and chief operating officer, serving as an alternate voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee.

Before joining the Fed, Hassan was the chief digital officer for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and had held various roles at Charles Schwab. She originally began working at McKinsey, a major industry consultancy.

Hamers indicated in the media release that the global wealth management business and the Americas region were both strategically important and offered «significant» growth opportunities.

I am confident that Naureen and Iqbal will build upon Tom’s success and continue to deliver for our clients and achieve our strategic ambitions, Hamers said.

UBS’ global wealth arm has expanded its coverage of Southeast Asian high net worth individuals with the appointment of three new private bankers.

Maria Lourdes Kristen Quintos joins UBS as a senior client advisor focusing on ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients, according to an internal memo.

Quintos has over 35 years of banking experience, most recently at Maybank ATR Kim Eng Capital Partners Inc. where she was its president and chief executive officer. Previously, she was also a chief representative at Bank of Singapore in Manila serving high net worth (HNW) clients, institutions and pension funds.

In addition, Nicolo Nicandro and Natalie Boey have also joined UBS as client advisors focusing on HNW and UHNW clients in the Philippines.

Nicandro was previously a senior associate and investment counselor at Bank of Singapore in Manilla where he advised and managed global multi-asset portfolios for private clients. Boey held a similar role at Citi where she spent nearly 15 years, including 10 years of focus on Philippines market coverage.

The three new additions join the bank’s global wealth management APAC Thailand and Philippines business sector.

A spokesperson for the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.

UBS will soon be launching a new app in Singapore, CEO Ralph Hamers announced. UBS CEO Ralph Hamers announced that the world’s largest wealth manager will launch its Circle One digital product in Singapore on Tuesday. If successful, the new app which is designed to connect investors with ideas in a global ecosystem could be used in other markets.

The offering is the latest digital effort from UBS, having launched its Key4 initiative last week.

Hamers also commented on the financial markets during the interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, noting investors are inclined to stay at the moment, given the market volatility. While clients are not necessarily exiting the market, they’re not exactly investing either, noting they are more or less sidelined and waiting for things to clear up, he said.

An appeal by a former UBS banker who was convicted in absentia of espionage was denied by Switzerland’s highest court.

The banker, only known as Rene S. was convicted of selling the data of wealth clients to tax authorities in Germany, and sentenced to 40 months in prison and fines and court costs of over 125,000 Swiss francs.

In 2020, the verdict was upheld by an appeals court, and was again by the Swiss Federal Court, dismissing an argument that the lower appeals court did not correctly conduct the proceedings.

At the heart of the case was the accusation that Rene S. pocketed 1.1 million euros ($1.14 million) from the sale of the documents and moved to a small town in Germany near the Swiss border.

Swiss banks have paid billions in settlements related to charges they made it possible to wealthy foreigners to hide their wealth.

Earlier this week, an attempt to change Swiss banking secrecy laws to exempt whistleblowers and journalists was blocked by lawmakers

Switzerland’s largest bank UBS has weathered multiple first-quarter headwinds, turning its best first-quarter net profit in over a decade. UBS reported Tuesday a net profit of $2.1 billion in the first quarter, exceeding expectations, showing the bank was able to steer a course through several challenges in the first quarter and posted its best first-quarter results since 2007.

The result improved on the $1.3 billion reported for the fourth quarter of last year and was better than the $1.8 billion booked during the first three months of 2021.

Switzerland’s largest bank accomplished this in the face of the Ukraine war, inflation showing no signs of abating anytime soon, and central banks that are tightening the loose-money spigots. «Our strong results today speak to our ability to accomplish our objectives regardless of the backdrop,» said UBS CEO Ralph Hamers.

UBS said it reduced its Russia exposure early and actively and had a direct country exposure of $400 million as of March 31 of 2022. It expects a firm-wide P&L negative impact of $100 million.

The bank said it is not conducting any new business in Russia or with Russia-domiciled clients. However, it will continue to monitor settlement risk on certain transactions with Russian bank and non-bank counter parties, which might result in unexpected increases in exposures.

Pre-tax profit was $2.7 billion, improving by one billion dollars from the fourth quarter result of $1.7 and bettering the comparative year-ago quarter of $2.3 billion.

Earnings per share were $0.61 in the first quarter, up from $0.38 in the fourth quarter of last year and higher than the $0.49 reported during the first quarter of 2021, the results showed.

Global wealth management (GWM) booked a pre-tax profit of $1.3 billion, with the unit reporting net new fee-generating assets of $19 billion in the first quarter compared to 36.2 billion in the same year-ago quarter. Total fee-generating assets were $3.1 trillion As of the first quarter of last year, the GWM unit no longer reports net new money every quarter, and will only disclose the figure in its annual report.

Earlier this month, finews.com reported that 2021 was a bumper year for Swiss banks attracting new money inflows. But this year, wealth and asset managers are facing geopolitical and economic uncertainty resulting from the ongoing war in Ukraine and inflation showing no sign of abating anytime soon. Add to the mix central banks that are starting to close the taps of easy money flowing into financial markets.

The investment bank’s division’s 126 percent pre-tax profit growth from the comparative quarter was mainly attributable to Archegos-related losses in the same quarter last year. Excluding that loss, revenues increased by 4 percent, or just over $100 million, primarily from increased revenues in equity derivatives, rates, and foreign exchange.

While the path of economic growth has become much more uncertain, UBS expects growth in economic activity to continue, but increased uncertainty could continue to affect client activity levels and asset prices. However, even as central banks are tightening policy to arrest rising inflation, the banks said that rising interest rates, notably the US dollar, are expected to lead to higher net interest income.