Private Equity

UBS Group is cutting nearly two dozen jobs in its Asian investment banking business, mainly in Hong Kong and Singapore, as part of a push to slash costs, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, as Reuters reported.

UBS in Hong Kong declined to comment to the newswire. The cuts are likely to hit mid-level staff hardest, but will also include several bankers at the rank of Managing Director.
Reuters reported last month that Standard Chartered is set to cut about a tenth of its global corporate and institutional banking headcount across all the major business centres starting with Singapore and Hong Kong, as the bank steps up an aggressive drive to cut costs.

Swiss private bank EFG International plans to cut up to 450 jobs over the next three years as part of its takeover of BSI Bank.

The acquisition of Ticino-based bank from Brazil’s Grupo BTG Pactual SA has made EFG one of Switzerland’s biggest private banks, behind the likes of UBS, Credit Suisse, Julius Baer and Pictet. EFG announced its intention to acquire BSI in February and is currently integrating its assets, personnel and systems.

Lombard Odier IM has announced on Wednesday the acquisition of an eight-strong market neutral team from London-based AlphaGen Capital, a subsidiary of Henderson Global Investors, to bolster its hedge fund strategies team.

The Volantis investment management team will join the Geneva group’s 1798 hedge fund strategies platform, as it transfers from AlphaGen Capital, where it managed over $1 billion in assets in UK equity long/short and long only strategies, Lombard Odier IM said in a statement.

In an environment of low global growth and slight deflation, high yield corporate bonds continue to offer attractive return prospects as long the current low default rate remains. Moreover, the distortions prompted by the ECB’s asset purchasing programme are causing a crowding out effect and accentuating a steeper credit curve. Time is notably an ally in this configuration, as it speeds up a positive carry!

UBS will launch a new robo-advisor service in the UK on November 21. The launch is part of a $1bn initiative to attract younger clients, with the firm’s wealth management business planning a follow-up advertising campaign in 2017. The Swiss bank will keep the minimum investment required for the new service to £15,000, while it usually requirs £2m to open a private bank account.

The negative rates of Switzerland (-0.75%), forced down by the Central Bank to protect the franc from dangerous flare-ups against major currencies, are keeping many customers away from banks.

As Helvetia Ag told Bloomberg, keeping the cash in a box at home or at the company, costs, for each million, 1000 francs insurance, instead of one million Swiss francs in the current account has maintained an average annual cost of 7,500 francs for the customers. But the sum doesn’t include the costs of logistics or security sistems.

Barclays completed the sale of the Italian retail branches to CheBanca !, controlled by Mediobanca. With this, CheBanca! double in size and exceeds the 20 billion in total deposits, taking a further step in the development process and in strengthening the asset management of the Italian families; thanks to the acquisition, it’s realized significant increase in the number of customers (+ 38% to 800 thousand), assets under management (+ 74% to € 6.8 billion), direct deposits (+ 27% to € 13.6 billion) and mortgage loans (+ 50% to € 7.5 billion).

Switzerland has seen disappear, as a result of sale or liquidation, 10% private banks in the course of 2015. Over the past year, their number dropped from 133 to 121, as revealed in a study by the consulting firm KPMG. The trend continued in 2016, with a further drop in July, with "only" 117 survived.

Despite the disappearance of the companies less profitable in general the performance of the branch is not improved. Two-thirds of the 87 tested banks have seen their results deteriorate last year, as stated in the annual organized by KPMG and the University of St. Gallen, which excludes UBS and Credit Suisse.