Swiss megabank wants to double U.S. ultra-HNW assets in the next four years. UBS has created the new position of chief recruiter for its U.S. wealth-management group and put former Smith Barney headhunter Jeff Bischoff in the slot.

UBS Wealth Management U.S. head John Straus cites Bischoff's "network of contacts and experience in attracting top talent" as the main reason for his appointment.

Straus, who joined UBS in October 2006, said earlier this year that he plans to double his high-net-worth group's assets under management to $250 billion by 2011 and increase the number of advisors catering to this segment from around 140 now to 400 by 2015.

Take that

This year UBS Wealth Management plans to open new offices Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco and Stamford, Conn. New York-based Bischoff had been a recruiting officer at Smith Barney, Citigroup's brokerage unit. Before that he was a recruiter for Oppenheimer & Co.

In other recruiting news out of UBS, the Zurich-based bank says it's opening a "Wealth Management Campus"in Singapore to train prospective and present advisors for UBS Asia Pacific's wealth-management business.

Asia's go-go economies have increased the number of high-net-worth individuals in the region, but wealth managers are having trouble keeping pace. Especially, it would seem, in Singapore.

 Last week Deutsche Bank plucked 18 private bankers away from Citigroup in the South Asian city state, and Goldman Sachs took a pair of wealth managers from UBS -- which happens to have conducted a six-advisor raid on Citi in 2006.

According to one report, wealth managers poached in Singapore can expect to see compensation hikes of between 30% and 50%. -FWR

.