UBS Wealth Management has relocated Oscar Balcon from Singapore to take up the role of chief executive for India.

Balcon, a 28-year veteran of the Swiss banking giant, is to spearhead the development of a domestic wealth management business in the Indian subcontinent.

"Today marks a key milestone in the development of our domestic wealth management business in India. In October last year, the group executive board approved the long-term strategic plans for UBS India including the build-out of an important domestic wealth management business on the subcontinent. Since then, the foundations have been laid rapidly and the core wealth management platform has been built," the bank said in a statement. 

"We have already started to offer equities, funds and cash products to our domestic clients, and will soon be offering sophisticated lending solutions for residents as well as NRI clients. We have clear plans to grow our client franchise in India and high ambitions to become the premier wealth management provider in this fast-growing market."

As part of its expansion plans for India’s wealth management market, UBS recently hired several senior relationship managers and cluster heads, the statement continued.

At the end of last month UBS reported that its global and Americas wealth management arms both logged increased profits in the third quarter of this year. The overall Zurich-listed banking group reported a Q3 net loss attributable to shareholders of SFr2.2 billion ($2.35 billion), reversing a Q2 profit of SFr425 million, caused by impairment losses amid major cutbacks to its investment banking business .

Across all regions, combined inflows to wealth management totalled more than SFr12 billion in the quarter, with each region reporting positive net new money flows. The annualised net new money growth rate was 3.9 per cent compared with 4.9 per cent in the previous quarter. Invested assets rose during the quarter by SFr33 billion to SFr816 billion.

Wealth management pre-tax profit was SFr600 million in the third quarter of 2012 compared with SFr502 million in the previous quarter. Total operating income increased by SFr55 million to SFr1.789 billion from SFr1.734 billion, mainly reflecting a rise in recurring fees on higher invested assets.