Family Office
UBS and Wells in brokerage merger talks: tabloid
Result of BD tie-in would be the latest "world's biggest
brokerage force". Zurich-based UBS is in talks with Wells Fargo
about a merger of their U.S. retail brokerage businesses akin to
the planned union of Morgan Stanley's private-client division and
Citigroup's retail brokerage Smith Barney, according to media
reports.
The result of a tie-in between UBS Financial, which has about
8,000 brokers, and Wells Fargo's Wachovia Securities , with a
broker headcount of about 16,000, would be the largest brokerage
force on the planet -- obviously bigger than the 19,000 or so
feet Bank of America's Merrill Lynch has on the street and the
20,000 that the proposed Morgan Stanley Smith Barney retail
brokerage would field.
Everybody's doing it
A retail-brokerage joint venture between UBS and San
Francisco-based Wells Fargo would cuts costs for UBS, according
to the New York Post, which broke the story on the
authority of unnamed sources.
UBS recorded nearly $50 billion in writedowns in 2007 and 2008.
Withdrawals by private clients through the same period may have
come to as much a 7% of its $1.9 trillion in wealth-management
assets under management. It also faces legal troubles in the U.S.
for allegedly helping clients evade U.S. taxes.
UBS has recently been luring brokers from rival wirehouses with
fat bonuses, according to reports. And, in a quiet
public-relations campaign, it's putting out word to the effect
that, as it was the first global and diversified
financial-service giant to feel the brunt of the worldwide
financial and economic crisis, it's likely to exit the mire ahead
of its competitors and in better shape for an upturn.
UBS got into the U.S. private-client business when it bought
Paine Webber in 2000.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia acquired its retail-brokerage
business when it bought the bulk of Prudential Financial's
Prudential Securities -- now Wachovia Securities -- in 2003.
Jersey City, N.J.-based Prudential still owns 38% of Wachovia
Securities; Wells Fargo has owned the rest since it acquired
Wachovia at the end of 2008. -FWR
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