UBS has launched a unit to move its investment bank closer to ultra high net worth wealth management clients, in a move that reinforces the Swiss giant’s belief in the integrated banking model, according to an internal memo seen by this publication.

The new unit, called the Global Family Office Group, is a joint venture of the bank's global UHNW segment and its investment bank and will be led jointly by Joe Stadler and Jerry Wattenberg. Stadler also heads the bank's UHNW segment, while Wattenberg, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs Group, is joining UBS from JTW International, an investment consultancy for extremely wealthy clients.

The bank’s Swiss rival, Credit Suisse, also ensures close relations between its private bank and investment bank in order to serve UHNW clients, as described by WealthBriefing in an interview here. In the US, US Bancorp recently announced it was launching a unit for ultra-wealthy clients.

According to the internal letter, UBS set up the unit to focus primarily on its up to 250 largest institutional-like or professional family office prospects and clients. The clients in question represent around 2 per cent of UBS's total UHNW client base around the world, UBS said. UBS said it will announce further steps in this business development around late October.

UBS's total UHNW clients have invested about SFr300 billion with the Swiss bank.

"These clients often have highly complex and specialized requirements, and many of them want the direct access to [investment banking] services which we can offer via the new unit," Juerg Zeltner, chief executive of UBS Wealth Management, said in the letter, which was also signed by Carsten Kengeter and Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, co-CEOs of UBS's investment bank.

"We are pleased to announce the establishment of a new Global Family Office Group within UBS, effective immediately. The GFO is a global joint venture between Global UHNW and Investment Bank and will provide coverage to its clients separate from IPS, but collaborating closely with it when WM products and services are required by our clients. It will take over the business currently handled by UHNW Institutional Group and further build on it," the memo said.

"We have set up GFO to focus primarily on our up to 250 largest institutional-like or professional family office prospects and clients, who represent around 2 per cent of our total UHNW client base around the world. These clients often have highly complex and specialized requirements, and many of them want the direct access to IB services which we can offer via the new unit," it said.