UBS private banker Christine Novakovic wants to make more out of the key European, Middle East, and African wealth market. She is enlisting a plan long rolled out in Switzerland.

One year to the day of taking a key job at UBS' private bank, Christine Novakovic is launching a new concept in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, she told «Reuters». Her plan is for the wealth arm to more closely work with the Swiss bank's capital markets arm and corporate client division, in a bid to win more private banking business from entrepreneurs.

The Italian-born Novakovic ran UBS investment bank and corporate client division in Switzerland for years, thus she knows the business she is seeking to tap for wealth intimately, as well as its potential. She is lifting a concept which is tried and tested in Switzerland, where bankers targeting the «entrepreneurs and executives» segment have long blurred the lines between private banking and investment banking.

Credit Suisse Focus

Her efforts come as crosstown rival Credit Suisse attempts to position itself as the «entrepreneur's bank», hiring countless bankers away from UBS in recent years to do so. Novakovic is enlisting the services of Swiss banker Christian Rosset (pictured below), a veteran of UBS who is currently responsible for real estate investments in Switzerland – a key segment for Switzerland's wealthy.

Rosset 500

The move catapults Rosset from the Swiss market onto an international stage. «We'll be starting out in certain markets and then gradually expanding the team, building up in other regions», Novakovic told «Reuters».