(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG hired at least a half dozen private bankers from rival Credit Suisse Group AG to boost its relationships with wealthy Israelis, people familiar with the matter said.
The team is headed by Ido Ben-Haim, a managing director and the head for the Israel market at Credit Suisse, the people said. At UBS, the team would report to Caroline Kuhnert who leads the bank’s wealth business in Central & Eastern Europe as well as Greece and Israel.
The hires help replace Moshe Fisher, who left UBS last month, as head of ultra-high-net-worth clients for Israel, several other people familiar with his departure said.
UBS declined to comment. A Credit Suisse spokesman confirmed that Ben-Haim left the bank alongside Hila Goldenberg, the chief executive of Credit Suisse in Israel in mid-September. Andreea Grob will become the new market head for Israel at Credit Suisse, the spokesman said.
Israel has experienced a wealth boom tied to surging investments in the country’s technology industry. Israeli startups have raised more than $18 billion this year, besting a record $10.7 billion set last year, according to data from Start-Up Nation Central, a non-profit organization that tracks the sector. More than 50 companies embarked upon initial public offerings this year.
Iqbal Khan, UBS’s wealth co-head and president for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, broke apart the EMEA private banking unit led by Christl Novakovic, giving Kuhnert responsibility for emerging markets in eastern Europe and Ali Janoudi the Middle East and Africa. Novakovic kept Western Europe. The goal was to increase business leaders’ responsibility for profit in their regions and the bank also set a target to double client assets it manages in both Kuhnert and Janoudi’s areas.
Read more: UBS Hires Credit Suisse Middle East Private Banking Team
UBS has made key hires in the Middle East region over the past two years. They include Desh Sharma, an ex-Credit Suisse rainmaker specializing in investment banking-like deals with wealthy clients, and a team of five private bankers led by Georges El Khoury focused on the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
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