The bank has set out its wealth management strategy for North Asia and talked about what it sees the most profitable type of client.

UBS has reiterated its goal of hiring about 100 client advisors over the next two years in Hong Kong, a strategy already seeing it build out substantial teams in Kowloon, for example. The Zurich-listed group is also going after a larger share of the mid-tier millionaire segment in Asia, according to a report by Reuters late last week. 

And perhaps controversially, the bank reportedly told the newswire that HNW business is more lucrative than its ultra-HNW one.

"For us, the sweet spot is high-net-worth clients with investable assets of between $2 million and $50 million," Jean-Claude Humair, regional market manager for Hong Kong at UBS, told the news service.

"We see tremendous untapped opportunity in the entrepreneurs segment in Hong Kong. The plan is to hire 50 client advisors in Hong Kong every year for the next two years to cater for these HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals),” he said.

With $286 billion worth of client assets as of the end of 2016 and about 1,100 client advisers, UBS is the largest private bank in Asia, followed by Citigroup and Credit Suisse Group, the news service reported, quoting industry data.

The report quoted Humair as saying that the high-net-worth business offers a better return on assets than that offered by the ultra-rich segment.

This contention draws on an argument that has been around for some time that ultra-wealthy clients, given their ability to win institutional-type pricing, their highly complex needs and demands, are less profitable at the margins than HNW clients.

As reported here back in 2015, UBS has been aggressively building teams of RMs in centres such as Hong Kong. 

The bank’s push into Asia contrasts with the trend of Western lenders such as Barclays, Societe Generale and ABN AMRO in selling Asian private banks to local players. There have been reports that Royal Bank of Canada might offload its Asian private bank. However, besides UBS, Citi and Credit Suisse as mentioned, firms such as Julius Baer, Standard Chartered and JP Morgan Private Bank are prominent in the Asian private banking space.