UBS is hiring three investment banking executives from a British competitor in order to expand its traditional advisory business in New York.

Despite this year's stock market recovery, the market environment in investment banking remains challenging. Rising interest rates and the looming threat of recession in major economies is making business cautious, including in the important US market, where the crisis at regional banks is creating additional uncertainty.

Poaching from Barclays

Despite those headwinds, UBS is expanding its investment banking presence in the United States where it lags behind competitors in mergers and acquisitions. It is hiring three investment banking executives from Barclays, according to a report from «Reuters».

Marco Valla, Jeff Hinton, and Kurt Anthony will join the UBS banking team in New York, with Valla appointed co-head of global banking alongside Javier Oficialdegui. Hinton and Anthony will also join the global banking team.

Building New Business

Valla replaces Ros L'Esperance, who will drive global banking strategy and build a new business advisory group for senior client-facing bankers, it said.

Valla was previously global head of TMT & Consumer Retail at Barclays. Hinton was co-head of Americas M&A, while Anthony was a managing director in the Consumer Retail Group.

UBS ranked 14th globally in merger advisory and 19th in equity underwriting last year, according to data collected by analytics firm Dealogic.

Credit Suisse's Investment Bank

With its takeover of Credit Suisse on March 19, UBS also inherited the troubled investment bank of Credit Suisse. It will proceed with caution in its investment banking endeavors. In its quarterly report today UBS said it intends to actively reduce the risk and resource consumption of Credit Suisse’s investment banking business.

The plan is for the combined investment bank to account for around 25 percent of the Group's risk weighted assets, excluding non-core assets and liabilities, to enhance our complementary investment banking and asset management capabilities, UBS said.