UBS retains positions as world's biggest private bank: study

[ZURICH] UBS kept its ranking as the world's biggest private bank last year, a study by wealth management researcher Scorpio Partnership showed on Thursday.

With US$1,737.5 billion of assets under management, UBS retained its highly-prized first place in 2015, staying nearly US$300 billion ahead Bank of America Merrill Lynch which replaced Morgan Stanley in second place.

UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, saw a one per cent fall in managed assets in 2015, while BofA Merrill Lynch's managed assets dropped 2 per cent and Morgan Stanley's fell 2.8 per cent.

Facing a slowdown in emerging markets, heightened volatility and hesitant clients, assets under management fell one per cent in the overall industry, the private banking benchmark study showed.

Net new money, a volatile but important indicator of future earnings in wealth management, fell 6.9 per cent overall.

For the 25 largest industry players, the drop in assets under management was steeper, even though they were able to increase net new money by a third.

"Ultimately, the market leaders have focused aggressively on improving their cost-effectiveness in their operating models in order to weather the storm as best as possible," Scorpio Managing Partner Sebastian Dovey said.

Switzerland's second biggest bank Credit Suisse fell further behind Morgan Stanley in the ranking with a 7.2 per cent fall in its managed assets to US$687.3 billion, the benchmark showed.

With less than half of Morgan Stanley's managed assets, Credit Suisse would need to add US$750 billion to break into the top three in private banking, an area chief executive Tidjane Thiam hopes will its main money maker in the coming years.

Under Mr Thiam, Credit Suisse has shifted resources away from investment banking and into wealth management in an effort to cut costs and boost earnings while taking on less risk.

REUTERS