Staff treated as dispensable cogs in management master plan which can shift and morph every year
Does not appear that Loyalty and hard work will be rewarded ; only the "chosen" ones are annointed and protected from cross border developments which will likely shrink offshore business
Many CAs are productive and perform despite negative headwinds of weak ineffectual DHs and CTHs who go missing everytime an important decision needs to be made
Defacto decision making is to sit on something and let the situation take care of itself so no head needs to put their head on the line.
However, these CAs are not given opportunities to develop their book because their own bosses are not favoured by senior management
Even new leads brought on have to be given up as the weak bosses do not want confrontation with the power bases like HNW South Asia, UHNW North Asia etc
This weak middle management is evident across all divisions and if you discern hard enough there will be a few long serving D and ED who are the backbone of expertise and know how in their specific teams (IPS,WP, etc) headed by yet another clueless head parachuted in or up in the management role by virtue of their presentation skills, ability to lunch with the top or by being so good at showmanship they are promoted into incompetence. Not many are cut out to be managers.
Being a manager requires sacrifice and a mindset to groom all your people equitably. Most managers leave the work to the backbone one downs and happily go on junket trips or creating their own pyramid schemes Competing with their own team members for limited leads, resources, support while cherry picking best of books for themselves when good bankers leave.
Low productivity and shallow skillset from long standing Swiss staff who serve as puppet custodian Bankers with no hold over the relationships but no one has dared to make decisive redistribution of these sacred cows choosing instead to flog the peripheral books and Asian bankers.
At some point, clients are bearing too much risk on behalf of clients who have learnt for many years that it is fine to keep millions of cash in custody with UBS and still get F1 paddock tickets and hotel bookings for the whole family.
No amount of "red carpet"will change this as wrong clients were onboarded and spoilt rotten for decades to a point of no return.
General consensus among staff is that Singapore base is treated like a stepping stone for successive leaders to gain more visibility and power thus, plans are devised for short term goals to maximise the leader's showcase before they get promoted into regional and meatier glory.
