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UBS shows no sign of slowing down its mainland China expansion plans despite an ongoing coronavirus outbreak, having met its target set in 2016 to double headcount to 1,200 ahead of schedule.
UBS group chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in 2016 that the bank would double its China headcount in within five years to tap into the gargantuan domestic financial industry which is undergoing a historic transition to allow greater foreign ownership.
Sources familiar with the matter said that UBS had already met the target to overall double staff size from 2016’s 600 to 1,200 ahead of its 2022 plan.
The bank remains committed to wealth management in China despite the ongoing outbreak,, adding that business was largely unaffected with the exception of deferring non-critical travel. For staff that must enter the mainland, the bank has asked that they stay home for a 14-day period afterward before returning to office – the widely used standard to determine if one has been infected by the deadly virus.
A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment on the matter.
Even with its current scale, the bank’s hiring spree in mainland China is unlikely to end soon. UBS’s majority-owned investment banking joint venture is also accelerating growth with plans to double its current headcount of around 400 in three to four years, in addition to pursuing full ownership by 2020-end.
Overall, our plan is to steadily grow China onshore headcount, but we are not just going to compete on size,» said David Chin, APAC head of investment banking and China country head at UBS, to reporters in December last year, placing emphasis on the derivatives business.
Chinese regulators announced last year that it would scrap foreign ownership limits this year in futures, securities, and mutual fund companies. Global financial institutions including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock are vying for a piece of mainland China’s financial industry as the country undergoes a landmark opening of its $45 trillion market.
