UBS promotes 96 people in the Americas to Managing Director

[NEW YORK] UBS Group AG promoted 96 employees to the level of managing director in the Americas as it pours resources into gaining more rich clients in the region.

The Swiss bank elevated 60 financial advisers and 36 Americas staff, according to Tom Naratil, co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management and president of UBS in the Americas, who posted lists of the promoted employees on LinkedIn.

UBS is rewarding staff as it plans to target billionaires and look after the complex fortunes of large families. The bank is the world's biggest wealth manager, with US$2.26 trillion of assets under management, but its American wealth operations are smaller than rivals Bank of America Corp and Morgan Stanley. The division has an "extremely ambitious" plan to boost pretax profits by 10 per cent to 15 per cent over the next three years, Mr Naratil said in a December interview.

"We continue to strategically invest in the Americas as a key area of growth," Mr Naratil said in a statement. "Our advisers are the most productive in the industry and these promotions are in recognition of their accomplishments."

UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti took a bolder set of financial targets back to investors in October, pledging to drive wealth management profit higher and place the US at the center of a growth strategy that also includes boosting lending to high- and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

BLOOMBERG