UBS has appointed a former CIO for Merrill Lynch's EMEA division to lead its chief investment office for wealth management.

UBS has appointed Bill O’Neill as managing director, head of chief investment office, wealth management research, UK.

O’Neill, with 20 years’ experience in the financial sector, was latterly CIO, EMEA at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth and Investment Management. Prior to this, he was head of investment strategy and asset allocation at Barclays Wealth, before which he was an asset allocation strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management.

In his new role, O’Neill will provide UK research content to the global CIO office, and will report jointly to Nick Perryman, head of investment products services, and Loris Centola, co-head of CIO wealth management research.

Meanwhile, Caroline Winckles is appointed as deputy to O’Neill.  Winckles joined UBS 10 years ago.

In addition, UBS has hired Tatiana Boroditskaya to join its wealth management research team, as an emerging markets credit analyst.

In other recent developments, last month UBS cemented its commitment to the Brazilian market, completing the acquisition of one of the country’s largest brokerage firms.