UBS, Merrill private banking growth slows on subprime

UBS AG, the biggest money manager for the wealthy, and Merrill Lynch & Co, the third-largest, had slower growth in assets under management last year after losses tied to the US subprime crisis, Scorpio Partnership said.

UBS' assets from affluent clients increased 8.8 percent to $1.9 trillion in 2007, compared with 13 percent growth the year before, said Scorpio, a London-based research firm, in an annual survey published yesterday. Merrill's assets rose 8.3 percent to $1.31 trillion, slowing from 10 percent in 2006, Scorpio said.

Merrill, based in New York, had the biggest writedowns from the subprime crisis last year, amounting to $27.4 billion, while Zurich-based UBS had $19.1 billion of markdowns. Growth in private-banking assets at Credit Suisse Group AG, the No 4 wealth manager, almost halved to 6.9 percent. The median increase for the global wealth management industry was 12 percent, down from 14 percent in 2006, even as some smaller banks benefited.