UBS’ Khan Says Diversification Is Key in Charged Environment

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UBS Group AG’s global co-head of wealth management said it will be key for clients to diversify investments amid political tension and economic instability.

“In a world that’s geopolitically more charged and potentially less global, being diversified is important,” said Iqbal Khan, speaking to Bloomberg Television at the bank’s Greater China conference in Shanghai on Monday.

UBS is the biggest wealth manager in the Asia-Pacific region with more than 1,000 client advisers. The Swiss bank last year relocated Khan, to Hong Kong, underlining the region’s importance even amid a prolonged downturn in the Chinese economy.

Khan also added the US is a key market for the Zurich-based lender. The bank still expects US interest rate reductions, albeit a bit slower than anticipated, he said. 

He reiterated the bank’s commitment to Asia and to China, where UBS is waiting to gain approval to purchase the remainder of a securities venture in the country. 

“We have started to see a commitment of China toward the economy and we are starting to see that economic policy come to bear,” he said. “We will see what the next steps around the more proactive fiscal stance will be in China. That will be as relevant as what the US does.”

Khan was tapped last year to lead the bank’s Asia-Pacific division 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 wealth division with him globally. 

The Swiss bank is scheduled to report its fourth quarter earnings on February 4.

(Adds details on Khan’s role in seventh paragraph.)

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