UBS to expand Miami-area wealth management team to service Latin America
Swiss based investment bank UBS says it is expanding in South Florida, opening a “hub” in its Coral Gables offices to cater to financial intermediary firms with ties to Latin America.
The unit will see six initial employees providing services to boutique wealth management firms, Bloomberg reports, with as many as 10 hires coming on in the first year. Swiss outlet Finews reports Mariana Gregori, head of UBS’ financial intermediaries international unit, will oversee the Miami office.
“With the new hub, UBS is tapping into potentially tens of billions of dollars managed by Latin American financial intermediaries booking assets in the U.S.,” Stefano Veri, who heads UBS’s Financial Intermediaries business. told Bloomberg. There are no current plans to cater to domestic clients, Bloomberg said.
It also said Credit Suisse is considering making a similar move — a sign of Miami’s ongoing importance as a banking hub for the region.
Veri says the Miami office will seek to capture business with businesses who have tapped into clients transferring assets out of unstable countries in the region.
In the past, these funds have come under scrutiny.
“We have built our [intermediaries] business in Miami on the basis of our compliance rulebook,” he told Finews. “We are very comfortable with our robust examination methods.”
