Wealth management is indeed not the only activity to adapt

UBS France entered the heart of the matter of its reorganization. The Swiss giant wrote last week to its wealth management clients informing them of its refocusing on six offices Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Nantes on the ten in his device in the hexagon. Services group financial, this long France, optimizes its geographical coverage to make savings and this leads to the closure of the offices of Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Lille and Toulouse ("Les Echos" on May 7). It is the challenge to offer the same quality of services to customers affected by the closures, which will be transferred to the closest offices (Toulouse to Bordeaux, Aix) and Cannes to Marseille, Lille to Paris. A plan to safeguard employment has also presented Wednesday last staff projecting a reduction of approximately 25 of the global workforce throughout the territory, or about 90 people.

This is not to say that UBS casts the sponge in the field of private banking. "There was a strong reaffirmation of the importance of the France in the strategy of UBS, instead ensure Thierry de Chambure, Chairman of the Board of UBS Wealth Management in France." "But we adapt our workforce to the degraded environment that affects the whole of the sector in France: decline in value of assets, preference of investors for less risky assets and general contraction of the economy." Wealth management is indeed not the only activity to adapt. Management of assets (about 200 persons), a staff information process began several weeks a project of outsourcing of the function of depositary, for about 50 people about located in Paris. It's a refocusing on the heart of the business of asset management, still practised in France. UBS has launched a call for tenders, taking into account the possibilities of reclassification of the staff.

A clear strategy

For its part, the investment bank which employs in France 100 people, plans no change in its scope of activity in France of his target customer or its range of products says Philippe Tibi, who heads. Also responsible for UBS for the France group, he wished to put in perspective the current changes, emphasizing the continuity: "UBS is one of the largest employers in France among foreign banks and we operate in three specific trades with a clear and unchanged strategy." "We maintain our ambitions and our commercial positions remained strong but we adapt taking into account the request that we anticipate and reducing our costs."

UBS France another message, if the Swiss giant had a succession of setbacks that have made headlines in recent months (the "subprime" crisis and case Madoff then tax litigation in the United States), will remove 10,000 jobs in two years should be the share things with what is happening in France: "the main cause of the adaptation of our device.", this is the situation of the French market in general considerations related to the situation of the group in the world," provides Philippe Tibi. In the management of wealth in particular, "our net collection of fresh capital has been positive in 2008 and remains in 2009, with an acceleration of this collection." "It does compensate for not however the decline in revenues linked to the decline in value of assets and aversion to the risk of investors", says Thierry de Chambure.