UBS hired more than 200 brokers in the US in the fourth quarter as it sought to counter client defections, Bloomberg said.

Meanwhile, a report in the Financial Times said UBS had signalled to make dramatic steps to revamp its business by holding talks late last year with Morgan Stanley over the sale of its US brokerage unit.

As far as the story on broker recruitment was concerned, it was not clear, however, whether the figure of 200 brokers was in addition to the 132 financial advisors that the Zurich-listed bank reportedly hired in the two weeks ending 28 November. UBS did not immediately respond to WealthBriefing’s enquiries on the matter.

Bloomberg said that UBS hired a team of five people in Dallas, Texas, from Goldman Sachs, with $4 billion under management, and a group of the same number from Morgan Stanley in Houston with $2.1 billion in assets, Karina Byrne, a spokeswoman for the Zurich-based bank said.

The Swiss bank hired employees from those and other competitors by offering sign-up bonuses of as much as 260 per cent of the revenue the brokers brought in over the previous 12 months, said two people with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified, the news agency said.

UBS is trying to halt withdrawals at its private banking units after $49 billion of write-downs and losses and a probe into whether the bank helped wealthy US citizens evade US taxes. UBS has said it is cooperating with the US investigation.

The bank is currently offering “industry-norm” bonus levels to new brokers of 160 per cent to 200 per cent of commission revenue, said Ms Byrne, who is based in New York. The bank had “good hiring” in January, she said, declining to elaborate.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times said people close to the situation said the discussions with Morgan Stanley over UBS Financial Services – acquired in 2000 in the $11.8 billion purchase of PaineWebber, the US brokerage and investment bank – were preliminary and were unlikely to be rekindled.

News of the talks with Morgan Stanley will raise further questions over the strategy of UBS, the FT said. Both UBS and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the matter.

UBS Financial is one of the largest US brokerages, with nearly 8,000 financial advisors.

UBS will update investors on its plans when it reports fourth-quarter results next week.