UBS is sifting the less-wealthy from the spectacularly wealthy in Europe, finews.com has learned. The move is a bid by top European private banker Christine Novakovic to better use technology in catering to those with less than $5 million.
The Zurich-based wealth manager is separating affluent European clients into a new unit called private clients, according to a memorandum authored by Europe, Middle East, and Africa wealth head Christine Novakovic. The move follows a similar push by Credit Suisse under new private bank boss Philipp Wehle last month.
Specifically, clients who book up to $5 million with UBS in Switzerland will be tended by a team of advisors, where they previously automatically had a private banker. A strong technology focus is meant to improve the speed of UBS' service as well as how much time private bankers spend with these clients. Novakovic already filtered out Europeans with less than $500,000, last month.
Splitting from Ultra-Rich
The newest move more clearly delineates the affluent, who draw little attention but are a huge generator of reliable revenue for private banks like UBS, from the ultra-wealthy. The super-rich will continue to enjoy the more specific – and staff-intensive – high net worth services.
UBS has focused enormous attention on this top segment of more than $50 million under veteran Josef «Joe» Stadler since a mega-merger last year. UBS is finding that wealthy clients' financial needs start to change when they hit $5 million in funds, Novakovic wrote in the memo. The move was first reported by «Bloomberg».
