UBS says Asia’s wealthy trade less, cut debt as politics shift By Reuters

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Angelika Gruber

ZURICH (Reuters) – Wealthy Asian traders are buying and selling much less, anxious that trade tensions are tilting the worldwide stability of energy, Martin Blessing, co-head of wealth administration at UBS (S:), mentioned.

“I think they would share the conclusion that it is not only about tariffs, it is more about political balance. That might take longer to resolve. People who had taken leverage to invest into the market … have retrenched a bit,” he instructed Reuters.

As geopolitical jitters and trade tensions have put stress on its fundamental enterprise, Switzerland’s largest financial institution, which can also be the world’s largest wealth supervisor, is popping to ultra-rich Americans for development.

While U.S. shoppers have begun to take extra notice of ongoing trade wars, their temper stays extra optimistic, Blessing mentioned.

UBS has seen an increase of their investments. Democrats took management of the U.S. congressional House of Representatives and made positive factors in state governor races in November.

“Their willingness to invest has gone up. Their outlook on the capital market has become even more positive,” he mentioned.

Blessing expects profitability within the wealth administration enterprise to stay good, regardless of margin stress.

“Competitive pressure will continue, profit margins are coming down, and then you either have to find different business opportunities or you have to grow volumes to make up for the revenues,” the German, former Commerzbank (DE:) CEO mentioned.

Although margins are greater on enterprise for so-called excessive internet value and prosperous shoppers, UBS will proceed specializing in so-called extremely excessive internet value people, to seize quicker market development amongst billionaires.

Asked whether or not he may be concerned about succeeding Sergio Ermotti, who has been UBS Chief Executive for seven years, Blessing, who started on the Swiss financial institution in 2016, mentioned:

“My experience is you should not worry too much about career planning. You should worry about the job you are currently doing, how can you do it better. Career planning other people do for you.”