Top UBS Executive Iqbal Khan to Make Hong Kong His Home Base

(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG is set to relocate Iqbal Khan to Hong Kong as he takes on a dual role as leader of the bank’s Asia operations and co-head of wealth management globally.

Khan’s home base will be in Hong Kong, people with knowledge of the matter said. The executive will also have a residence and dedicated office in Singapore and he’s likely to divide the majority of his time equally between the two cities, reflecting their status as the bank’s key wealth management hubs. 

Khan will continue to travel extensively throughout the region as well as to EMEA and the Americas. Such visibility is important to clients, teams and regulators, according to Malini Vaidya, a partner at executive search firm Spencer Stuart.

His mobility highlights how firms need to maintain a presence in the two financial centers. Hong Kong, Asia’s capital-market hub, is a popular place for China’s rich to park assets while Singapore has become increasingly prominent as it draws investment flows from across the Asia-Pacific region, and the rest of the world.

Khan, who became the co-head of global wealth-management in July, is scheduled to move to Asia in the next few weeks. He was tapped for the Asia-Pacific role in May as part of a shakeup that saw investment-banking chief Rob Karofsky appointed to run UBS’s business in the US and jointly oversee the private-banking business with him globally. He will assume that role in September. 

A spokesperson for UBS declined to comment.

Khan, 48, and Karofsky, 57, are key contenders to succeed Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti, who is expected to step down by early 2027.

Khan’s move highlights the significance of Asia to UBS as it seeks to focus on fast-growing markets that can help the Swiss bank achieve its goal of $5 trillion in wealth assets under management. UBS’s decision capped weeks of speculation by staff and clients about his choice for relocation as the May reshuffle didn’t specify which city he will formally move to.

UBS faces a stiff challenge in convincing ultra-rich clients to back Greater China, with a long economic slowdown and doubts over government policy leading billionaires to increasingly avoid adding investments in the region.

–With assistance from Jan-Henrik Förster, Denise Wee, Cathy Chan and Jeff Black.

(Adds headhunter analysis in third paragraph.)

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