Credit Suisse filed claim against UBS over staff raid, WSJ says

[NEW YORK] Credit Suisse Group AG has filed an arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority alleging that a unit of UBS Group AG unfairly poached staff from its US private-banking business over the past several months, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The claim with the Wall Street self-regulator was filed even as Credit Suisse winds down the US unit at which the financial advisers worked, the Journal said.

About 70 of the 300 brokers from Credit Suisse's US private-banking division left for UBS in recent months, the Journal reported, citing the person familiar with the matter.

Gregg Rosenberg, a spokesman for UBS, declined to comment. Representatives from Credit Suisse and Finra didn't respond immediately to requests for comment made outside US business hours.

Wells Fargo & Co. struck a deal with Credit Suisse to smooth the recruitment of the Swiss lender's private-bank employees as part of Credit Suisse's planned retreat from managing wealth for US clients, the two firms announced in an October statement. The deal would allow US advisers and clients to move to Wells Fargo by early 2016, according to the statement.

The departures to UBS have hurt the plan to transfer the business from Credit Suisse to Wells Fargo, the Journal reported.

A Wells Fargo spokesman didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.

BLOOMBERG