UBS warns staff away from China travel after banker is detained
Swiss wealth manager UBS has asked some of its bankers not to travel to China after an employee was contacted by authorities there, reports said.
A small team of private banking advisers were sent a cautionary note, which recommended they reconsider any travel plans in the region while the bank attempted to gather more information about the situation.
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The banker, who is based in Singapore, will attend a meeting with authorities for unspecified reasons after a travelling to see clients in the country.
Bloomberg reported the banker had been detained, while the Financial Times and Reuters said authorities had only asked her not to leave the country, with all three citing anonymous sources close the the matter.
The identity and position of the banker are not known. The bank has asked others in its China wealth management team to review their travel plans carefully, but has not extended that recommendation to its other units.
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Both UBS and the foreign ministry of China did not respond to requests for comment.
UBS is Asia’s biggest wealth manager, and has increasingly looked at China as a boom market because of its growing wealthy elite, many of whom are seeking to diversify their holdings beyond the country’s borders.
The country’s regulators have been attempting to prevent capital flight and other forms of evasion by cracking down on non-compliance, and have made several high-profile arrests in recent months.