Australia’s government has turned to a former chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management, John Fraser, to take the helm of the country’s Treasury Department.

Australia’s government has turned to a former chief executive of UBS Global Asset Management, John Fraser, to take the helm of the country’s Treasury Department.

Fraser, currently chairman of UBS Global Asset Management, takes on the role as of 15 January next year and will at that time step down from his role at the Swiss banking group and other UBS-related mandates, the Zurich-listed banking group said in a statement today.

“John's move follows a long and distinguished career at UBS and in finance which began in the Australian Treasury and has spanned five decades. His time at UBS began at Swiss Bank Corporation in Australia in 1993. Under his leadership, Global Asset Management developed from a localised organisation into a focused large-scale asset manager with a diversified mix across regions, capabilities and distribution channels. Following the appointment of Ulrich Koerner as CEO of Global Asset Management last December, John focused, amongst others, on his position as chairman of Global Asset Management,” UBS said.

Fraser takes on the role at a time when the country’s government faces budgetary headwinds, affected by weaker revenues from commodity exports and, as media reports said, difficulty in pushing through savings measures in the legislature.