UBS to set up RP representative office

UBS AG, one of the world’s leading provider of wealth management services, will set up a representative office in the Philippines in line with its expansion in South East Asia, company officials said yesterday.

This, as the group struggled to recover from its strained relationship with the Department of Finance and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

UBS was in the middle of the controversy that led to the removal of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Philippine mission head following an ill-timed release of information that nearly botched a sovereign bond float last year.

In addition to UBS Securities Philippines Inc. which was put up in 1996, the group was also granted a license by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate a representative office in the Philippines.

"Applying for a representative office license was the next logical step to build on the momentum we have already generated in this important market. This license is the latest manifestation of UBS’s unflagging commitment to the Philippines," said Brad Orgill, head of equities for UBS Asia Pacific

UBS AG is one of the largest asset managers globally among major houses in the investment banking and securities businesses.

With head offices in Zurich and Basel, UBS operates in over 50 countries and from all major international financial centers. Its global physical presence is complemented by clients products and services via a variety of different channels - from the traditional retail bank to sophisticated, interactive online tools.

Orgill said UBS has appointed veteran investment banker Lauro Baja as head of the new representative office.

"His presence will complement that of Robby Go, head of UBS Securities in the Philippines, to ensure that our clients benefit from the full range of UBS’s capabilities both in the Philippines and around the world," added Sharon Mitchell, head of fixed income, rates and currency of UBS Asia Pacific

In fixed income and investment banking, UBS said it completed more transactions than any other investment bank in the last 12 months, and secure a 100 percent market share of international issuance by Philippine banks over the period.

After almost a year of isolation from any transactions by the Philippine government, UBS was again allowed to participate in the recent $1-billion global bond offer.

According to a well-placed BSP source, however, the DOF’s reconciliation with UBS did not extend to the BSP. "The DOF might have thawed but we haven’t," said a BSP official. "We haven’t restored them to the list of institutions that we would like to deal with."

He said if the group wants to establish an overseas banking unit in the country, it would have to go through the BSP.

It could be recalled that former IMF mission head to the Philippines Joshua Felman earlier aired concerns about a discrepancy in the country’s current accounts which he reportedly told some officials of UBS. In turn, UBS allegedly leaked the IMF concerns to the Asian Wallstreet Journal, which printed the story the day before the pricing of a Philippine global bond offer.

Irked by the negative market reaction that upped the price of the bonds, the DOF formally asked the IMF to replace Felman and UBS was subsequently fenced out of all Philippine borrowings and offers.