Iqbal Khan has already employed a lot of former colleagues at his new financial institution.

UBS Group AG wealth boss Iqbal Khan is working the telephones and criss-crossing the globe to thwart the potential lack of high Credit score Suisse Group AG bankers and purchasers as opponents search to use the turmoil surrounding the Swiss lender.

Iqbal Khan, a former Credit score Suisse govt, is speaking with personal bankers in workplaces from Dubai to Doha as he tries to hold onto the stricken agency’s high expertise, in accordance with individuals with data of the matter. Mr Khan met managers in Hong Kong this week and plans to go to Singapore as effectively, the individuals mentioned, asking to not be recognized because the initiative is personal and in early levels.

Mr Khan’s private intervention indicators that UBS is anxious rivals will use the Credit score Suisse drama to poach priceless personnel and purchasers earlier than the takeover by UBS is accomplished this 12 months. Credit score Suisse’s greater than $1 trillion of consumer belongings have been the important thing attraction for a deal that bolsters UBS’s ambition to be the world’s high wealth supervisor.

Deutsche Financial institution AG, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are amongst banks in search of so as to add each personal and funding bankers, with some easing hiring freezes to make the most of the Credit score Suisse scenario, Bloomberg Information reported on Thursday.

Even earlier than the swiftly organized cope with UBS, Credit score Suisse had seen a gradual exodus of high personal bankers and a drumbeat of asset outflows, reaching $110 billion within the fourth quarter. Whereas the financial institution signaled earlier this month that outflows had slowed, they elevated once more final week when the financial institution acquired a liquidity line from the Swiss central financial institution.

UBS declined to remark.

Iqbal Khan signaled throughout his Asia journey that relationship managers ought to stick round till the merger closes as a result of UBS could be prepared to supply incentives and retention packages sooner or later, the individuals mentioned. His retention affords aren’t formal, and are a part of UBS’s efforts to spice up workers morale at Credit score Suisse, one of many individuals mentioned.

Few inside UBS are higher positioned than Mr Khan to resolve which bankers the agency ought to try to maintain. Earlier than shifting to UBS in 2019, he was head of worldwide wealth administration at Credit score Suisse, with duty for operations within the Center East and Americas. Credit score Suisse was so involved about dropping bankers and purchasers after Mr Khan left that it arrange a spy operation to watch him. Iqbal Khan has already employed a lot of former colleagues at his new financial institution.