People Moves
UBS Changes Senior Wealth Management Role

The world's biggest wealth management firm by assets is reportedly changing one of its senior roles as part of a strategy change announced a month ago.
UBS is replacing its
wealth management finance head in the wake of an overhaul of its
strategy, as announced in January, Reuters reported.
Markus Habbel, CFO for wealth management and for the
Zurich-listed bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, was
replaced by UBS’ group controller and chief accounting officer
Todd Tuckner, the news service reported, citing an internal memo.
The bank confirmed the announcement to WealthBriefing
today.
Reuters reiterated that under the joint leadership of
Tom Naratil and former Credit Suisse banker Iqbal Khan, the bank
is planning to cut some 500 jobs. Last month, when checking that
figure – as originally reported by Bloomberg –
WealthBriefing understood that this figure
of 500 is not accurate.
Tuckner will relocate from the United States to Zurich, reporting
to four separate executives as he maintains his group-wide,
division and regional roles.
In January, UBS said that its global wealth management business
in the fourth quarter of 2019 logged a 160 per cent year-on-year
jump in adjusted pre-tax profit, standing at $787 million.
Operating costs fell significantly in Q4 2019 from a year before,
explaining some of the profit gain. Recurring net fee income fell
as a result of margin compression and by client moves into
products which earned the bank a smaller margin, but
transaction-based income rose by 26 per cent, or 14 per cent when
the fee paid by personal and consumer banking is stripped out.
Separately, and as announced and reported here last month, UBS is building out its global family offices business, seen as a battleground for wealth managers operating in the ultra-high net worth space.