UBS Opens Largest Asia Pacific Office In Singapore

SINGAPORE – Swiss banking behemoth UBS has officially cut the ribbon to its biggest office in the Asia Pacific region in Singapore within the 9 Penang Road office complex, reported The Business Times on Wednesday afternoon (17 November, SGT).

The Singapore office of the world’s biggest wealth manager stands on 400,000 sq ft of prime property. It is also eco-friendly as it’s 100 percent powered by renewable energy.

In a press release, UBS’s group CEO Ralph Hamers said he is optimistic that UBS Singapore will continue to perform a crucial part in “helping us achieve our ambitious growth and sustainability goals”. For instance, the multinational bank targets to attain net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for all its operations come 2050.

Moreover, UBS Asia Pacific President Edmund Koh commented that the bank’s growth of UBS in Singapore is a testament to the city-state’s success as an international finance hub.

Apart from the official opening of its new office in Singapore, the wealth manager also launched two new tech initiatives, namely UBS Circle One and TechConnect SEA.

The latter is an ecosystem that will help tech firms connect and flourish to become the next generation of unicorns in Asia Pacific, while the former is an app being developed out of Singapore that will link investors to ideas about a global ecosystem.

In line with this, Koh shared that UBS expects the digital economy of Southeast Asia to increase by over 2-fold from US$380 billion to US$800 billion come 2025.

“UBS has come a long way, starting out with a handful of professionals in 1970 and growing to employing over 3,000 staff in the Wealth Management, Investment Banking and Asset Management businesses today,” commented Singapore’s Minister of Finance Lawrence Wong, who attended the opening of the new office.

“It has remained committed to building up Singapore’s local talent pool, while deepening the capabilities and expertise of the industry in meaningful areas such as innovation, philanthropy, and sustainable investing.”