Howard Leon and Anthony Mazzo transfer to UBS' Boca Raton office from Oppenheimer, reporting to Michael Ludwig, the branch manager. 

The appointments are a continuation of the Swiss bank's ongoing expansion drive for its client relationship businesses, and follows the positive performance the Americas business delivered during the second quarter of 2011. For Q2 the US unit posted SFr140 million ($174.3 million) in pre-tax profits, up from SFr111 million in the first quarter. 

The bank has recently announced other hires in the country, including that of Ajay Mehra as head of manager and fund research and the addition of eight senior advisors with more than $1 billion in assets under management in July. In June, UBS brought in 38 financial advisors with a total of $2.8 billion in client assets. 

However, the firm's results show that on a full-time equivalent basis, US personnel in wealth management declined 1 per cent year-over-year to 30 June. It was 16,240 as at 30 June 2011, compared to 16,341 a year earlier. This is in contrast to its Switzerland and international wealth business - which includes Asia - where headcount grew 1 per cent over the same period.