Asia-Pacific Brokerage Firms Rankings

Asiamoney provides good ranking services, but this year Thomson Extel has muscled into Asia Pacific territory by announcing the awards ahead of Asiamoney. The awards were voted by more than 100 fund management groups across Asia. Voting was conducted among 109 buyside firms in Asia.

Leading Equity House

Australia & NZ - Macquarie Equities
China - CLSA
HK - JP Morgan
India - Citigroup
Indonesia - JP Morgan
Malaysia - UBS
Singapore - Citigroup
South Korea - UBS
Taiwan - CLSA
Philippines - UBS
Thailand - Credit Suisse

What is surprising is the number of awards UBS managed to snare because despite their strong brand name, most of the employees at UBS do not get paid as much when compared to their peers. Head HR honchos at UBS always trumpet the fact that employees of UBS should be glad to have the opportunity to work there, and that money making is largely due to the company's name rather than the individual's efforts. Hmmm... Looks like UBS is going down the same path as BNP Paribas (losing staff by the dozens and losing money in sure fire places like China), and surprise, surprise, the French bank also trumpets largely the same mantra as UBS. As the American houses try to establish a stronger foothold in Asia, primarily China, HK and India... rest assured that UBS will lose even more people to them. And lets see if the name does bring business in.

The smugness of UBS is largely due to their very strong private banking and funds management side, which provides the turnover and large buys/sells movements across Asia. Their very strong quant funds management side moves markets, and clients need to have that information flow from UBS. That is largely why UBS need not pay well. So, UBS... no need to call me... OK!