UBS on the top of the world, biggest private bank

Swiss private banking giant UBS has retained the title of the world's biggest private bank, according to annual report by wealth management researcher Scorpio Partnership, published today.

Although its assets under management (AUM) fell 1 per cent from 2014 to 2015, it still topped the global rankings, with US$1.74 trillion (S$2.34 trillion) at December 2015. Bank of America Merrill Lynch came in second, with AUM of US$1.444 trillion – down 2 per cent for the year, while Morgan Stanley was third with US$1.439 trillion, down 2.8 per cent. 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 $687.3 billion, the benchmark showed.

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.