UBS forecasts an increase in clients’ assets in the UK of £4 billion ($6.6 billion) this year, including net new money inflows.

UBS forecasts an increase in clients’ assets in the UK of £4 billion ($6.6 billion) this year, including net new money inflows, Bloomberg quoted the head of the Swiss firm’s UK private bank as saying.

The UK unit of the Zurich-listed banking group logged a rise in assets of 15 per cent to £31 billion in the nine months through September last year, Jamie Broderick told the news service in an interview.

As the home Swiss market has come under pressure due to the international crackdown on the Alpine state’s bank secrecy laws, Swiss firms are having to re-examine their strategy and source of business. London is, and is increasingly becoming, a vital booking centre for international wealth.

The comments from Broderick come as investors await fourth quarter and full-year results from banking groups – JP Morgan yesterday kicked off the results season and its private bank logged a rise in revenues. UBS issues its figures on 4 February.

In its Q3 results announced last autumn, UBS logged pre-tax profits in its global wealth management business, including the Americas while it also remained in the black for the banking group as a whole. As far as the Wealth Management business was concerned (excluding the Americas business), it achieved year-to-date net new money of more than SFr43 billion ($47.5 billion), up around 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2012.