UBP To Cut 300 Jobs From Lloyds Private Banking Unit

Sandra Kilhof

10 July 2013

Switzerland's Union Bancaire Privee is aiming to axe 300 jobs from the recently-purchased international private banking arm of Lloyds Banking Group.

According to a report by Reuters, Geneva-based UBP will slash 40 per cent of the Lloyds unit workforce, after it bought the private banking branches for £7.2 billion ($10.8 billion) in May of this year. The private banking unit consists of 500 staff members based in branches in Geneva, Zurich, Monaco and Gibraltar.

Confirming the planned redundancies, Jerome Koechlin of UBP said that, “it is premature to provide any figure at this stage”, yet a source close to the matter revealed that employees working on ultra high net worth accounts, clients with $25 million or more in liquid assets, would be spared.

The move will provide UBPs’ assets with a much-needed boost, after its revenue fell 9 per cent in 2012 despite a SFr8 billion ($8.43 billion) rise in assets under management.

Lloyds has been partly owned by UK taxpayers since it was bailed out after the 2008 financial crisis. The initial sale to UBP was made as part of the bailout terms to shed 631 branches by 30 November 2013.

Other recent acquisitions includes ABN AMRO's Swiss private banking arm, Nexar, the Paris-based asset manager and also a portfolio of assets from Spanish bank Santander's Swiss asset management arm.

In related news, UBP earlier this year placed around £450 million ($678.2 million) of shares after announcing it will sell stocks in St James’s Place, the UK wealth management business.