Regions

This was the statement from Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti when asked if UBS was planning to sell its wealth management arm. The firm based in the US used to be known as the Paine Webber brokerage.

Ermotti said, "It has always been my view that it would be a terrible strategic mistake for UBS not to have a significant presence in what is arguably the most important financial center and wealth management market globally."

There has been periodic speculation that UBS would sell off its US wealth management business as the broker based business model for the arm is very different from the UBS private bank set up. The subsidiary was at a financial loss and was losing brokers left and right. When Robert McCann joined as CEO, this was reversed, resulting in a 2012 fourth quarter pre-tax profit of US$216 million or an increase of 36% from the previous year.