UBS' long-standing head in Asia is retiring after more than three decades with the Swiss bank. Her protégé joins the bank's top management as a result.
Zurich-based UBS said Kathy Shih will retire at year-end. The 61-year-old Shih is one of the most respected and long-standing wealth managers in Asia, and part of top management under CEO Sergio Ermotti for the past two years.
She will be replaced in top management by Edmund Koh, the protégé to whom she had already ceded operational control in Asia two years ago. Shih has still wielded considerable influence as president of the Swiss bank’s Asia-Pacific activities since then.
Unblemished by 1MDB
Shih's career is unblemished even from UBS’ unseemly involvement in the 1MDB graft scandal. Along with her team, Shih survived the financial crisis which nearly toppled UBS in 2008 unscathed.
Earlier this year, the fiercely competitive Shih said that UBS' near-death in 2008 had been a defining moment for her, not just because it ultimately swung the bank's focus away from trading and squarely onto wealth management.
«Personally,» she said, «I learned that you can fail, and that you have to be more aware of the risks, even in big institutions like UBS.»
Wealth Merger
On Thursday, the bank acknowledged her as the executive who hiked its assets in Asia to nearly 300 billion Swiss francs ($300.9 billion), from 60 billion francs when she took over in 2002. Shih ran UBS' Asian private bank much like a fiefdom, with very little interference from Zurich, according to sources.
Her retirement comes amid wider changes for the private bank: Her long-time boss, Juerg Zeltner, left in December. Now, UBS faces questions over why exactly it merged a private bank including the Asian powerhouse arm with a U.S.-based brokerage formerly known as Paine Webber.
UBS also finds itself in the headlines after one of its bankers was held up in Beijing, as finews.com reported last week. Onshore China, and its rapidly growing billionaire population, is a target for most private banks in the region.
Equal Footing
UBS has jumped into China with both feet, and now arguably has the best-established franchise in the competitive onshore market.
Shih's replacement, Koh (pictured below), is currently head of private banking in Asia as well as country head in Singapore. He joined UBS six years ago from To Chong, a Taiwanese bank, and previously worked for DBS in Singapore.
Koh's appointment doesn't change his role, but puts him on equal footing with overall wealth heads Martin Blessing and Tom Naratil.
Alongside Koh, UBS named Markus Ronner to its top management. Ronner has overseen the carve-out of an emergency planning unit head of regulatory relations and strategy.
