) wants to double the amount of assets under management at its business targeting wealthy clients in Russia and central and eastern Europe, a senior manager told Reuters.
“Russia has had a very strong start to the year, which contributed very substantially to EMEA overall both in terms of revenues and net new money,” UBS’ wealth management head for Central and Eastern Europe, Caroline Kuhnert, told Reuters in an interview. Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has tried to encourage businesses to return funds to the country by offering a capital amnesty and tax breaks.
A trained economist and former investment banker who worked in Moscow in the early 90’s for the former International Moscow Bank, Kuhnert heads up a team of roughly 300 employees covering wealth management for Central and Eastern Europe, Greece and Israel. They manage assets estimated somewhere in the mid-to-high double-digit billion U.S. dollar range.
UBS clearly doesn’t care where its money comes from. Money launderers - come on down.