Wirehouses

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 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.

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.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. hired Travis Machen from Morgan Stanley to run corporate banking for hedge funds, money managers and other mid-sized financial firms.

UBS AG’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Naratil will meet next week with Knight Vinke Asset Management LLC, an investor that called for a spinoff of the lender’s investment bank, two people familiar with the matter said.

Before Dom Starsia talks about national titles, he unfolds a two-foot-wide spreadsheet that gives University of Virginia recruits a look at life after lacrosse.

Ken deRegt, a Morgan Stanley veteran called on to revamp risk-management and the fixed-income trading business after returning in February 2008, is leaving again to join investment firm Canarsie Capital Group.

Wells Fargo added a former Edward Jones advisor in Hudson, Ohio.

Boutique and hybrid models are poised for growth as larger firms cede market share, according to a new Cerulli report

"I think to just look at numbers on Wall Street and say, 'It looks like it's struggling' -- it's contracting in a very healthy way," said fomer Morgan Stanly Executive Bob Auer. "It's almost like a big fat guy that is losing weight. To say, 'Oh, he's just not the same guy…' No -- he's getting healthier and better."

Janney has picked up a former Morgan Stanley duo with over $1.5 million in production.

To bring alternative investments to a wider investor base, Goldman Sachs Asset Management has launched the Goldman Sachs Multi-Manager Alternatives Funds.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the world's largest banks won rollbacks in final Dodd-Frank Act rules that promise to transform the private swaps market by increasing competition.

Sallie Krawcheck, the former senior executive at Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., agreed to buy 85 Broads, the global network with 30,000 members that promotes women as business leaders.

Thomas Welch knows there’s a better chance he will be fired than retire. So he spent his vacation interning at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management to prepare for a second career to sustain him for the next 40 years.

Breaking into the brokerage business is getting tougher as declining fees make small accounts less profitable and government restrictions on unsolicited calls make phone sales taboo. That’s leaving big firms struggling to replace a retiring generation of advisors.

Goldman Sachs has filed to launch the Multi Asset Real Return Fund. The fund seeks real return by investing in inflation-sensitive assets.

Goldman Sachs has been “deficient” in linking compensation to company performance, Glass Lewis said in a report, which also opposed the re-election of compensation committee Chairman James A. Johnson. ISS said in a May 8 report that shareholders should vote for Johnson at the New York-based bank’s May 23 annual meeting.

Morgan Stanley is expanding the types of debt it buys as deposits increase with the purchase of its brokerage venture and interest rates remain near record lows.