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UBS has revamped its asset-management business in preparation for the appointment of Iqbal Khan and Rob Karofsky as the division’s new co-heads next week.
The reorganization, announced to employees on Thursday morning, is aimed at aligning the firm’s core wealth management business more closely with its investment banking and asset management divisions.
The move comes as Switzerland’s largest bank seeks to sell more of its banking services to ultra-high net worth individuals and convert investment banking clients into wealth management account holders.
“Our number one priority is and will remain delivering great outcomes for our clients every day,” Khan and Karofsky said in the staff memo seen by the Financial Times.
UBS announced last month that Khan, who had previously run the bank’s asset management business alone, would share responsibilities with Karofsky, who ran the group’s investment banking.
Khan was also appointed head of the Asia Pacific region, while Karofsky was named head of the Americas.
The personnel changes are seen as UBS is preparing the two most likely successors to Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti.
The overhaul announced Thursday, which Messrs. Khan and Karofsky have been working on since the beginning of the year, the people said, would put former Credit Suisse executive Yves-Alain Sommerholder in charge of overseeing various business lines that will bring wealth management closer to other parts of the bank.
Starting next week, Somerhalder will take over as head of a new division called GWM Solutions, overseeing divisions focused on investment management, markets, lending, ultra-high net worth clients and alternative investments.
In a sign of the growing importance of Asian markets to UBS, the bank announced that Patrick Grob, who heads a new alternative investments division within GWM Solutions, will move to the region and become president of its Asia-Pacific business from September.
UBS also announced that its Latin American business, which it has strengthened with a team from Credit Suisse, would be separated from its Americas division and continue to be led by Marcello Ciroff.
Meanwhile, Jason Chandler will move from his position as head of GWM Americas to chairman, and Michael Camacho will take over from JPMorgan as head of GWM US.
