Wealth management a bright spot for UBS in 2011

The Wealth Management Americas division of UBS AG had a tough fourth quarter. The Swiss bank reported this morning that revenues in the division were off 5% from the third quarter, with earnings down 24% to $125 million. Then again, the wealth management unit's performance was not nearly as bad as the rest of the bank. For UBS as a whole, profits were down 76% for the quarter with the investment bank posting a substantial loss. What's more, the full year results for wealth management in the Americas were a lot better than 2010. Revenues were up 11% to $5.95 billion, and earnings were $573 million compared to a loss of $125 million in 2010. For the quarter, the firm brought in $2.1 billion in net new money and $8.7 billion if dividends and interest are included. UBS maintained the highest revenue per financial advisor in the industry at $842,000 for the second quarter in a row. It added 54 advisers to its ranks in the quarter, giving it a total of 6967. “The quarter was a challenging one,” said UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne. “But we had a much better year than 2010.”