UBS to cut 90 jobs in Asia private wealth and investment banking next month

UBS Group Inc. cut about 90% of its private wealth and investment banking business in Asia in March as China’s stock market crash and weak trading slump in revenue, people familiar with the matter said. The company is planning to reduce its workforce. Bloomberg.

The Zurich-based lender is considering plans to cut about 70 jobs at its private bank and 20 jobs at its global banking unit, one of the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is confidential. That’s what it means.

Job cuts in the wealth division are likely to include around 25 relationship managers, primarily in Greater China and Singapore, as well as supporting roles in the investment and solutions teams.

The bank added that job cuts have not yet been finalized as it expects more voluntary redundancies after the bonuses are paid.

The scale of the contraction in private banking is one of the largest in Asia. This comes after wealth in Greater China plummeted amid the real estate crisis and economic downturn.

Banks around the world are cutting staff and salaries at investment banking departments in Asia as companies look to cut costs amid the worst trading drought in history.

However, a Hong Kong-based spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

The bank plans to start cutting bonuses as early as March after discussing bonuses with employees this week. The job cuts include bankers who joined from Credit Suisse as part of the integration following the UBS acquisition, one of the people said. Wealth Management has more than twice as many employees as its closest rival after the merger.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have already made several job cuts in Asia over the past 18 months, according to the report. bloomberg I will report.

According to data compiled by , Asian stock sales outside Japan fell 30% last year, but rose 45% in the United States. bloomberg. Bank of America cut more than 20 jobs in its investment banking division in Hong Kong last week.

Outside of Asia, UBS has cut several senior bankers as financial giants continue to cut jobs following last year’s acquisition of Credit Suisse, people familiar with the matter said.

When the Credit Suisse deal closes in June, UBS’s workforce will jump to about 120,000 people, and the bank said it aims to save about $6 billion in payroll costs over the next few years. Ta.

(Using information from Bloomberg)