UBS
Highly Regarded
If there is one thing the wealth management team at UBS has learnt in the past two years, it is that while events on the ground change, the laws of private banking remain stable.
That was the kind of thinking that ensured UBS – under the leadership of Amy Lo and August Hatecke, co-heads of Asia Pacific UBS Global Wealth Management – stayed ahead of the curve.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2021, operating income at UBS Global Wealth Management rose 11%, year on year, to $881 million. Net new money surged 109%, year on year, to $13.7 billion. Transactional revenue rose 21%, year on year. The bank’s mandate penetration increased to 14%. Profit before tax rose 19%, year on year, to $468 million, while the cost-to-income ratio was 47%, down 4 percentage points, year on year.
UBS’s focus on family offices in Hong Kong is a microcosm of why its wealth management franchise is going from strength to strength.
For more than 50 years now, UBS has been working with multi-generational families in Asia, something it’s done globally – and succeeded at – for over 150 years.
Here, the UBS one-bank model has gained considerable traction. It enables UBS to provide holistic coverage to the most sophisticated and institutional-minded family offices, covering needs from investments to differing levels of family planning requirements.
The global team that UBS has built, working across six booking locations exclusively dedicated to covering this client segment, makes for unique cross-regional synergies.
A key selling point in Hong Kong: more than 85% of the senior family office management UBS has assembled has been with the bank for 15 or more years.
This continuity engenders trust, say Lo and Hatecke. Things really came together at the height of the pandemic as Hong Kong’s wealthiest relied on the expertise UBS provided, along with the tailored client coverage they’ve come to expect.
As Asia’s tech unicorn craze heats up and IPOs beckon, the UBS Tech Connect universe is gaining momentum, with Hong Kong clients eyeing disruption to come and becoming keen on more carbon-neutral investment options. This network connects clients, startups, academics and thought leaders to brainstorm and swap capital transfer opportunities.
The seventh UBS Disruptive Technology CEO Summit, held in November 2021, connected over 3,000 business leaders, entrepreneurs and market disruptors from around the world. The marquee event gave clients insights into topics such as the future of artificial intelligence and robotics, health tech, food tech, space tech and logistics. It also cemented UBS’s credentials further in the private banking world.