The CEO of the Brazil arm of UBS says the Swiss bank is considering purchasing a wealth management firm in Latin America's largest economy.

UBS is looking at buying a wealth management business in Brazil, the chief executive of the Swiss firm’s Brazil group has said, according to a report.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Sylvia Coutinho said: ““We are looking for acquisition opportunities in the Brazilian market.”

If the Zurich-listed bank, which is the world’s largest wealth management firm by assets under management, does make a deal, it will be a reverse of a recent trend of Latin America-linked organisations buying Swiss businesses. In 2011, Safra bought Sarasin from its Netherlands owner; this year, Banco BTG Pactual bought Lugano-headquartered BSI from Italy's Generali. Such a move by UBS would suggest that the bank, which like some of its Swiss peers has been under pressure due to Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws, has not just recovered, but is moving onto a more positive growth tack.

As one of the “BRICS”, Brazil, despite some recent economic problems, has a relatively fast-growing affluent middle class, although the country remains noted for its large inequalities of wealth.

The CEO told the news service that UBS plans to hire more people for its wealth business and open offices in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte to serve high-net-worth clients even if it can’t find a firm to buy, she said. The focus will be on those with assets of 5 million reais ($2.2 million) or more to invest, she was quoted as saying. She joined the bank last year; she was formerly head of retail banking and wealth management for Latin America at HSBC.

Brazil’s wealth-management industry had 591.4 billion reais in assets under management as of March, the news service quoted Anbima, the country’s capital markets association, as saying.

While profits fell slightly in the second quarter of this year, UBS said that in its wealth management business, net new money remained “very strong” at SFr10.7 billion and the bank logged an annualised rate of net new money growth at the upper range of its target. In its Americas business, UBS said there here were $2.5 billion of net outflows in the quarter, mainly as a result of clients taking out money to pay seasonal income tax bills. Total net new money was $3.2 billion. UBS said this business maintained its adjusted cost/income ratio and its gross income on invested assets within its target ranges.