UBS shakes up Middle East wealth management team

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UBS has shaken up the leadership of its critical Middle East wealth management operations as it comes under pressure to keep staff happy following its takeover of Credit Suisse.

Executives at the Swiss bank hope to become the biggest wealth manager in the highly profitable region, but have suffered a setback with the expected departure of its top private banker in Qatar, the Financial Times revealed this week.

In a staff memo seen by the FT, UBS head of wealth management Iqbal Khan told staff on Thursday that Christl Novakovik will be responsible for the Middle East as head of Emea, with Bruno Daher as her deputy. Daher had been head of the Middle East for Credit Suisse.

Ali Janoudi, previously head of the Middle East, Turkey and Africa for UBS, has been switched into the strategic clients team as executive chair, under Benjamin Cavalli, another former Credit Suisse manager.

The strategic clients unit is centred on UBS’s richest customers, offering them a range of global banking services.

“The entire [global wealth management] leadership team has been focused on making decisions based on fairness and meritocracy in order to bring further clarity and stability to all of our stakeholders,” wrote Khan in the memo.

The changes come after the FT reported that HSBC was set to poach a team of Credit Suisse senior Middle East wealth managers including Aladdin Hangari.

Hangari, as the head of Credit Suisse Qatar, maintained close relations for the bank with the Qatar Investment Authority, one of its biggest and longest-established shareholders. 

UBS rescued its longtime rival Credit Suisse in a deal orchestrated by Swiss authorities in March. The takeover was completed last month and UBS is due to provide more details about its plans for the combined group at its next quarterly results on August 31.

Among other changes announced on Thursday, Andreea Grob was named head of a newly defined region covering Turkey, Israel, Greece and Africa, while Puneet Matta will lead India and Michael Marr will be head of Australia.

They are all due to start their roles on July 17.

UBS also announced on Thursday that it was retaining Credit Suisse’s shipping finance business, which not only provides loans for clients’ yachts but also offers financing for the fleets of customers with shipping businesses.

The operation will be combined with UBS’s aircraft financing division and form part of a business that straddles the wealth arm and investment bank called the global lending unit, led by Ruben Mangold.

Credit Suisse attracted criticism from its ultra-wealthy clients last year after the FT reported on a securitisation deal the bank had put together based on yacht loans. After the story came out, the bank asked prospective investors to destroy marketing documents related to the deal.