UBS to cut several dozen wealth management jobs: sources

[ZURICH] UBS will cut several dozen jobs at part of its private bank, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, part of a previously announced organisational restructure.

The Swiss bank told staff in May it was rejigging its flagship wealth management business, part of efforts to cut costs at a time of increased regulatory costs, negative interest rates and restrained client activity.

At the time, UBS said this would lead to staff cuts without going into specific figures.

The latest cuts affect employees worldwide at IPS, which provides products and services to wealth management clients.

Fewer than 100 staff will be affected by the latest round of cuts, one of the sources said. Some employees could stay on with the bank in other roles.

At the end of September, UBS's wealth management division had 9,918 full-time employees, down from 10,135 three months earlier.

UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, last week showed it had netted 100 million Swiss francs (S$140.75 million) in third-quarter savings, bringing total net cost cuts since 2013 to 1.5 billion francs.

It is targeting net cuts of 2.1 billion francs by end-2017.

REUTERS