UBS taking ‘close look’ at US as Asia wealth business slows

UBS Group is taking a “close look” at opportunities to grow in the U.S. after the region helped offset a slowdown in its Asian private banking business in the first quarter, Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said in an interview.

The Swiss wirehouse, which in January agreed to buy robo-adviser Wealthfront, saw “a real pickup of demand” in the U.S. and Europe in the first quarter, even as client activity in Asia slowed, Hamers said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

“It’s a very important geography for us, it is strategic,” Hamers said about the U.S. “So where we can, we will certainly keep our eyes open.”

UBS on Tuesday reported better-than-expected profit as its trading unit benefited from clients seeking to shield themselves from the financial impact of higher interest rates and the war in Ukraine. Hamers said uncertainty about gas and oil delivery will continue to weigh on global economies as the war continues.

“On the market side it was a really good quarter, a record quarter,” he said. “It’s just that the equity capital markets side dried up because of the uncertainty in the markets.”

Hamers said the bank had “quite a good book with more senior roles than ever” in that business, though “the timing of these transactions coming to market nobody can predict at this moment.”

WEALTH MANAGEMENT IN THE AMERICAS

UBS’ wealth management business in the Americas is currently focused on three fronts: technology investments, including replacing its old broker and adviser workstation; increasing the number of bank products used by financial advisers; and expanding its digital offering, including the Wealthfront acquisition, to reach more core affluent clients, or those with $1 million or more to invest.

The Global Wealth Management Americas group reported $12 billion in net new fee-generating assets for the first quarter.

The unit had 6,199 financial advisers at the end of March, compared to 6,218 at the end of December, a negligible drop of less than half a percentage point.

In the same period a year ago, UBS Global Wealth Management Americas reported 6,335 financial advisers, so head count since then has decreased by 136, or 2.1%.

Bruce Kelly contributed to this article.