South: UBS named Best Private Bank of 2014

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TBM Team

UBS has received the award for 'Best Global Private Bank 2014' from Euromoney magazine.

Based on over 2,000 peer votes from over 470 institutions worldwide, the award underlines the Bank's position as the top wealth manager in the industry.

Alongside the title for 'Best Private Bank', UBS has also taken the title of Euromoney’s 'Best Private Bank in the UK 2014’, and this among a total of 18 global, 62 regional and several country-specific categories.

Jürg Zeltner, chief executive of UBS Wealth Management, said: “Our excellent showing this year is clear evidence that our peers recognise the leading role we play in the paradigm change taking place in the wealth management industry, and that our strategy is the right one.”

In Euromoney’s 2014 survey, the big global players have been able to gain client assets in the prime international markets of London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich/Geneva and Dubai at the expense of regional banks.

UBS Wealth Management's ranking as the best global private bank is followed by Swiss rival Credit Suisse. JPMorgan remains third, while Citi moves up to fourth place globally, moving HSBC down a notch.

The top five banks are looking to asset management as the driver for market share. Each now has a chief investment office that is responsible for macro asset allocation decisions for the bank’s clients – a move away from the traditional model of private banking.

“The industry is moving to a model of investment management for private wealth and away from just collecting funds,” said Jürg Zeltner, chief executive of UBS Wealth Management.

Individual chief investment officers (CIOs) are now crucial to leading wealth managers. JPMorgan seems to be winning the battle of asset management, having moved to a CIO model in the late 1990s.

JPMorgan Private Bank’s chief executive Phil di Iorio says banks have often just leveraged investment views from asset management or the investment bank instead of having a dedicated CIO “who analyses markets with a private client lens”.

In Asia, a key region for private banks, the global banks dominate the top 10 overall. UBS, Citi, Credit Suisse, HSBC and JPMorgan take the top five positions in respectively.

China Merchants Bank (CMB) won on its home turf in China.

TBM Team