UBS wants to focus on wealth management
UBS wants to reorganize wealth management in several European countries and some emerging markets. According to a media report, the restructuring brings new responsibilities in addition to changed structures.
UBS is planning to reorganize wealth management for important European countries and some emerging markets (WM EEM). This is reported by the online portal “Finanz und Wirtschaft”, citing the Swiss financial news agency AWP, which in turn refers to an internal memo from the major bank. UBS has confirmed the content of the memo to the portal and therefore speaks of a “more market-oriented structure”. According to the report, the Asia region should not be one of the emerging economies affected.
Fewer teams, fewer cash centers
In Europe, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain are initially affected. Several teams in the division are to be merged under the umbrella of UBS Europe, based in Frankfurt. The aim is to have investors from one country only looked after by a single team, regardless of whether they are making domestic or cross-border investments. In Italy, the One Wealth Management Platform (1WMP) is also to be installed, which brings the bank one step closer to its plan to handle all of its wealth management via an IT platform.
Risk management closer to business
There are also plans to significantly reduce the number of booking centers for cross-border wealth management: from ten to date, only three are to remain with those in Switzerland, the one at UBS Europe in Frankfurt and the one in Great Britain. According to the memo, customers should still be able to book domestic business in their home country.
According to the author of the memo, Head of WM EEM Paul Raphael, risk management should also be brought closer to the business in order to promote greater risk awareness and assign responsibilities more comprehensively and consistently. The memo apparently also contains plans for changes in management for the WM-EEM region, but without naming specific names.
