UBS warns private bank staff against travel to China

The Swiss bank UBS has warned some staff members against travel to China, as the Chinese authorities have asked one of its advisers not to leave the country.

UBS, one of the world's largest wealth managers, has sent an internal memo to a small team of regional private banking advisors, recommending delays in travel in the country, while the bank learns more about the situation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case. .

Government authorities have asked a recently-arrived Singapore-based UBS banker to stay in the country to answer questions about an unspecified topic, prompting the bank's warning.

According to the person, the banker had not been arrested, but the circumstances surrounding her situation were not clear.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. A spokesman for UBS declined to comment.

UBS is one of the few global banks to manage an onshore wealth management business in China, where growth in the number of billionaires has outstripped that of most other major economies in recent years. It is Asia's leading wealth manager with $ 383 billion in assets under management, followed by Citi ($ 256 billion) and Credit Suisse ($ 202 billion).

The burgeoning wealth management sector in the region has been closely scrutinized by Chinese regulators, who closely monitor the country's wealthy elite and their bankers as part of a nationwide effort. broader crackdown on capital flight and other forms of regulatory evasion.

Technology giants Alibaba and Tencent were fined earlier this year for violating the rules on cross-border currency payments in their financial services units. A burgeoning insurance company in Hong Kong, which has helped ordinary Chinese citizens bring their wealth out of the country, has also been interrupted by regulators over the past two years.

Earlier this month, Fan Bingbing, China's best-paid actress, was fined 479 million rand ($ 70 million) for tax evasion after suddenly disappearing from the public scene during several months, during the biggest disappearance of recent years.

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Chinese regulators, trying to prevent capital from leaving the country and further weakening the renminbi, have long been engaged in a game of cat and mouse with wealthy Chinese investors who have desperately sought loopholes, such as gambling in Macau, their money out of China.

The pressure exerted on these people to diversify their investments outside China has increased following the 2015 stock market crash and the slowdown in the domestic real estate market.

UBS's investment banking activities have been closely scrutinized in Hong Kong. Earlier this year, the company had been banned for 18 months from sponsoring IPOs in Hong Kong after investigating its role in certain listings on the city's stock exchange.