Swiss bank plans to add 70 more private bankers before this decade is out. UBS says it will hire around 70 private bankers in Spain by the end of the decade, foreseeing a spurt in demand for wealth-management services as a result of the country's that economic growth.

"We want to provide the benchmark for private banking in Spain and we will invest what it takes to achieve that," says Miguel Irisarri, UBS' general director of wealth management in Spain.

Spain's economic growth -- 3.8% in 2006 -- has outpaced growth in the euro-currency zone for the past 11 years in a row, creating a new generation of mass-affluent and high-net-worth in search of wealth-management services.

UBS will open another three branches in the country this year, bringing its total to 10. UBS's Spanish private-banking business had $7.49 billion in assets under management in 2005. -FWR

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