Industry

UBS AG, the Swiss bank seeking to boost profit from wealth management, said it plans to expand in Africa as economic growth rates surpassing 5% boost demand for banking services from the continent’s rich.

The new hires are part of the firm’s aggressive two-year recruiting campaign to increase the sales force by 50% by the end of 2014.

Royal Bank of Canada said second-quarter profit rose 26% as acquisitions fueled returns.

Small-business owners are generally satisfied with their access to funding and about one in five plans to apply for a loan in 2013, according to a new survey from Bank of America (BAC).

The past five years have been difficult for many advisors, but it was also a time of opportunity, according to Michael Gatewood of UBS Wealth Management.

When Wells Fargo named Rick Folmar the company's second-best complex director for recruiting in 2011, he knew he had more work to do. "It's worse to be number two than it is to be number 20. If you're number 20, you never believed you could be number one," Folmar says.

Robeco Investment Management has named Kerry James as head of institutional distribution, effective June 1.

Brian Schaub and Chad Meade, fund managers who quit Janus Capital Group this month, have joined Arrowpoint Partners, a Denver-based hedge-fund firm co-founded by their former colleague David Corkins.

Vishal Bakshi moved to Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group in New York after managing more than $1 billion in client assets at Credit Suisse.

The firm picked up a 32-year industry veteran in Rochester, N.Y.