Rivals see UBS holding on to clients after trading loss

Rich clients of Swiss bank UBS have not yet moved their millions to other banks after its $2.3 billion trading scandal last month, rival private bankers said.

"They've been hit by everything. It's not going to make any difference," Louay Al-Doory, head of global business development at Swiss boutique wealth manager Reyl & Cie, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit in Geneva.

"UBS is still UBS. You may have a scratched Rolls Royce, but it's still a Rolls Royce," said Al-Doory, himself a former UBS banker.

UBS Chief Financial Officer Tom Naratil said on Tuesday the bank had not seen any "material change" in client deposits since the trading scandal was made public on Sept. 15.

Clients pulled nearly 400 billion Swiss francs -- almost 20% of total client assets -- from UBS during the financial crisis as the once proud bank was battered by subprime losses and a prolonged dispute with the US tax authorities.

It had just started to restore client confidence when the latest news hit, but UBS said on Tuesday it expects third-quarter client inflows to be broadly similar to the 5.6 billion Swiss francs it reported in the previous three months.

"In comparison with 2008, we have a feeling that a number of investors are confused and do not have the energy to change banks," Blaise Goetschin, chief executive of Swiss Banque Cantonale de Geneve, told Reuters in Dubai on Tuesday.

James Fleming, head of international private banking at Coutts & Co., the private banking arm of the Royal Bank of Scotland, agreed.

"A lot of clients were disaffected over the last few years. We've seen a migration of people who were badly served in previous institutions," he said. "I can't see any increase since the UBS scandal."

One leading Swiss institution has seen clients moving from UBS since the scandal, one banker told Reuters, but others said it was too early to judge the impact of the latest crisis.

"There has been no increase in flow from UBS in the short term. Mid-term, long term I would assume yes," said Peter Fanconi, head of private banking at Swiss bank Vontobel.

Enrique Marazuela, chief investment officer of the private banking arm of Spain's BBVA, said he had not seen big movements of clients recently like those during the financial crisis.

"Asking questions yes, but moving not," he said.

Yves Mirabaud, managing partner at Swiss bank Mirabaud & Cie, said the rogue trading crisis showed that "small is also sometimes very beautiful", although he joked that his wife had not moved her account from UBS.

But he had no feeling of schadenfreude over the woes of Switzerland's biggest bank: "It's terrible because UBS is a key factor in Switzerland. It is not good for the Swiss financial centre," he said.

Source: Business Standard