UBS to hire 50 HK wealth bankers after record revenue year

[HONG KONG] UBS Group plans to hire about 50 bankers for its wealth business in Hong Kong after its North Asia wealth business raked in record revenues last year, according to a senior executive.“A lot of the hiring will be focused on high net-worth because for the last few years, we’ve been focusing so much on ultra-high net-worth and billionaires,” Amy Lo, co-head of wealth management for Asia Pacific, said in an interview.The Swiss bank, the largest private bank in Asia, hauled in US$62.5 billion of net new assets during 2025 – the most of any region. Hong Kong’s booming initial public offering market helped mint new wealth and the bank also recovered some flows it lost following its absorption of Credit Suisse Group. “During the beginning of the integration we had some outflow, it’s good to see also some of the win-back,” said Lo. “Clients see everything is settled.”The rebound has helped the Swiss bank draw a line under a volatile period, during which a large number of former Credit Suisse private bankers covering North Asia left the firm. Iqbal Khan, co-president of wealth management globally, relocated to Hong Kong in 2024, highlighting the significance of Asia to UBS. Global client inflows at the bank’s key wealth management unit slumped to US$8.5 billion during the fourth quarter last year, well below the analyst consensus of US$27.4 billion, dragged down by outflows in the US market. This was offset by inflows from other regions, including Asia Pacific, which attracted US$6 billion of net new assets in the final quarter. UBS last week took over its new office in West Kowloon at the International Gateway Center, bringing it even closer to the Greater Bay Area – a project to further integrate Hong Kong and Macau with Shenzhen and other neighbouring Chinese cities. It is expected to open its doors toward the end of the year. The bank also plans to “selectively” expand its wealth team in the Chinese mainland, which currently has roughly 200 staff including front and back office positions to cover domestic clients, according to Lo. They are also looking at partnerships onshore, she added, without providing further details.With wealthy individuals in the region looking at other jurisdictions to help spread risk, UBS also has a 130-strong Asia Pacific team based in Switzerland, around half of whom speak Mandarin, said Lo. That team has doubled its assets under management in the last three years and aims to double them once more by 2030, she added. UBS has been increasing scrutiny of its clients’ sources of wealth and using external firms to help screen their documentation, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last year. Lo said the bank needs to continue to streamline the process but “the situation has improved.”“If we can’t onboard new clients, we won’t be able to achieve the US$37.9 billion of Asia Pacific inflows in the third quarter,” she said, adding that “quite a lot of them are new assets.” BLOOMBERG