UBS Wealth Management has strengthened its ultra high net worth team in Russia with a new hire from a rival bank, WealthBriefing can exclusively report.

UBS Wealth Management has strengthened its presence in Russia with the hire of Marco Pavoncelli as a senior client advisor based in Moscow, WealthBriefing can exclusively report.

Pavoncelli was latterly at Credit Suisse, also in Moscow, working with the bank's key client segment. Before that role, he created cross-divisional coverage models for Merrill Lynch’s fixed income group.

In his new position, he will be covering ultra high net worth individuals in the region.

Gregg Robins, head of UBS Wealth Management in Russia, said in a statement that the hire demonstrates the firm’s commitment to Russia.

In other recent development at the Swiss bank’s wealth management division, this publication exclusively reported two weeks ago that Brian O'Reilly, head of research at in the UK, left the firm after nearly 12 years.

At the start of May, UBS Switzerland’s largest bank, said that its wealth management pre-tax profit was SFr803 million ($840.8 million) in the first quarter of 2012 compared with SFr471 million in the previous quarter, and included a reduction in personnel expenses of SFr237 million related to changes to its Swiss pension plan.