UBS will hire more wealth management advisors in Australia after inflows at the local unit resumed this year, the chief executive of the Swiss bank’s wealth unit in Australia said, according to Bloomberg.

UBS plans to expand a 120-strong team to 160 by 2014, Clark Morgan said in an interview with the news service yesterday. The division’s net flow of funds, which were “probably negative” in 2008, have been “slightly positive” this year, he was quoted as saying.

The news will be a welcome one across UBS, which has suffered a number of blows to its wealth management operations in countries such as the US.

Australia’s main stock index has jumped 48 per cent since March as an economic revival prompted the central bank yesterday to become the first Group of 20 nation to raise interest rates since the height of the global financial crisis.

Mr Morgan said the region will lead expansion at the wealth management business of UBS.

“Asia-Pacific is seen as the growth market,” Morgan said. In Australia, “the business has seen a marked change from where it was six months ago.”

Among UBS’s wealthy clients in Australia and New Zealand, who typically have at least A$1 million ($888,000) to invest, there’s a greater appetite for risk, Mr Morgan said. Most of their assets are in Australia, where there’s more demand for stocks, he added.