(April 9): Young Jin Yee quit her last job after less than six months to take on one of the hardest tasks in private banking — combining the Asian operations of UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse.
Now almost 10 months into her new role as UBS’ co-head of Asia-Pacific wealth management, the former international gymnast is making a mark.
Net new client funds brought in under Young’s remit came to almost US$14 billion (RM66.50 billion) during the second half of last year, people familiar with the matter said. She’s using her ties with UBS investment bankers hailing from Credit Suisse to win business from ultra-rich clients. And former Credit Suisse operations in Southeast Asia, one of her areas, broke even early this year for the first time since the merger.
It amounts to a positive start for one of Asia’s highest-profile bankers, according to interviews with 11 people with knowledge of her work, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
But challenges remain. One is to build the business in India and Australia, two booming — and increasingly important — wealth markets. Another is to manage lay-offs and cut costs after the merger. Biggest of all is to bring together two very different cultures.
Whether Young succeeds will help determine if UBS can translate its size advantages in wealth management into higher profits and a bigger share of a fragmented market. It will also be a factor in the latest test of whether government-orchestrated rescues of financial giants ever really work.
“It’s a tough job,” said Martin Kuenzler, a former private-banking executive who spent 19 years at Credit Suisse. “Jin Yee will have to prove herself.”
UBS announced in March 2023 that it was buying Credit Suisse for three billion Swiss francs (RM15.75 billion) in a shock deal brokered by the Swiss government. Just before the takeover closed in June, Young revealed her strategy as the Asia-Pacific wealth head of Deutsche Bank AG, which she joined in January after almost two decades at Credit Suisse. Some 16 private bankers had followed her to Deutsche Bank, one of the biggest exoduses in recent Asian private banking history.
So it surprised many when Young was offered — and took — the job at UBS, starting to run the Asia-Pacific business in June alongside Amy Lo, a 29-year UBS veteran. Lo, who is in her early 60s, handles Greater China from Hong Kong, while Young, 49, oversees the rest of the region from Singapore. Lo is also the chair of global wealth management for Asia.
UBS wanted a former Credit Suisse person to help run the combined business and win back the more than US$100 billion that panicked clients withdrew before Credit Suisse collapsed, people familiar with the matter said. Iqbal Khan, UBS’ global head of wealth management and a former Credit Suisse banker himself, personally recruited Young, one of the people said.
“I was offered an opportunity to co-lead the best and largest wealth manager in the region, together with Amy, whom I admire greatly,” Young said in emailed comments. “It was too big an opportunity to pass.”
One of Young’s overriding tasks is to help the world’s second-largest wealth manager after Morgan Stanley to gain a bigger market share. UBS wealth management oversees US$3.9 trillion in client assets, but that’s just a fraction of the global pie, estimated at about US$159 trillion by Bain & Co and GlobalData as of the end of December. The two firms forecast the market to swell to around US$195 trillion by the end of 2027.
Young has already made some progress. The almost US$14 billion of net new client funds added under her remit from July to the end of December compared with roughly US$10 billion attributable to Lo’s areas, people familiar with the matter said.
Young’s close cooperation with Tan Kuan Ern, who was one of Credit Suisse’s top investment bankers, is helping, people familiar with the matter said. Tan and his team have handled major deals such as the purchase by United Overseas Bank Ltd, the Singapore lender shaped by the late billionaire Wee Cho Yaw, of Citigroup Inc’s Southeast Asian retail assets announced in 2022. Entrepreneurs who do business with the investment bank can sometimes become lucrative private banking clients.
Former Credit Suisse wealth operations in Southeast Asia, part of Young’s remit, broke even in January for the first time since the merger, according to people familiar with the matter.
But while net new money increased more in Asia-Pacific than any of the other three major regions in the last three months of 2023, operating profit was the lowest, largely due to a slowdown in China. Asia-Pacific’s cost-to-income ratio rose to 87.7% in the fourth quarter as a result…
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