UBS weighs cutting about 90 jobs at Asia Wealth, bank teams

The scale of the retrenchment in private banking is one of the biggest seen in Asia and comes as wealth from the Greater China region has tumbled amid a property crisis and the faltering economy. Global banks have been cutting investment-banking jobs in Asia and are slashing pay as firms seek to cut expenses amid one of the worst deal droughts ever seen.

A Hong Kong-based spokesperson declined to comment.

The bank plans to start the cuts as early as March after bonus discussions with staff this week. The reductions would include bankers who have joined from Credit Suisse as part of the integration after the takeover by UBS, one of the people said. The wealth management workforce is more than double the size of its nearest rival post merger.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have already made several rounds of job cuts in Asia over the past 18 months. Asia stock offerings outside Japan plunged 30% last year, compared with a 45% jump in the US, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank of America Corp. last week cut more than 20 investment-banking jobs in Hong Kong.

Outside Asia, UBS cut several senior banker jobs as the financial giant continues to reduce headcount following last year’s takeover of Credit Suisse, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

UBS’s workforce jumped to about 1,20,000 when the Credit Suisse deal closed in June, and the bank has said it aims to save around $6 billion in staff costs in the coming years.

Chairman Colm Kelleher has warned that 2024 will be a challenging year as the bank has over-delivered on the “easy part” of reducing headcount as part of the integration.