UBS job cuts are tiny strike at Asia wealth fears

Just three months after the world’s biggest wealth manager sealed the takeover of its Swiss rival, UBS is set to cut at least 100 jobs in Asia including from teams acquired from Credit Suisse. The headcount reduction is tiny compared to the thousands it slashed in Europe but it hits on two regional wealth worries.

It is a reminder of the tricky Asian franchise UBS inherits. That business thrived on serving entrepreneurial customers including in Indonesia. Their risk-taking appetite has diminished as the end of cheap money fuels a shakeout in valuations. More significantly, the pruning of jobs in Hong Kong and Singapore hints at a muted outlook for banks that have thrived on handling assets of rich families. China’s weak economic turn and the repercussions of a widening $1.3 billion money laundering scandal in Singapore, the region’s preferred safe haven, point to a slowing of industry inflows.

Asia’s relatively strong economic trajectory and inter-generational transfer of wealth remain long-term drivers of growth but with twin troubles in the region, UBS might not be the only one getting its house in order.