- 1% of the nearly 6,500 financial advisers in UBS’s wealth management business in the Americas are Black or African American, division co-head Tom Naratil said at an internal town hall on June 18.
- Less than 2% of employees at the director level or above in the Americas are Black or African American, Naratil said.
- Naratil said the business was now accelerating its investment in diverse talent in the workplace.
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1% of the nearly 6,500 financial advisers in UBS’s wealth management business in the Americas are Black or African American, division co-head Tom Naratil said at a virtual internal town hall held on June 18, a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
Naratil, who is also president of the Americas and co-heads the wealth division with Iqbal Khan, said that less than 2% of employees at the director level or above in the Americas are Black or African American.
The figures, which have not been previously reported, come as financial services firms and companies across industries commit themselves to more diverse workplaces amid a global outcry over racism.
Business Insider reported earlier on Wednesday that the largest US wealth managers, which are UBS, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit, would not publicly disclose the racial diversity of their advisers.
UBS has been holding weekly virtual town hall meetings each Thursday during remote work in recent months.
The virtual town hall last week came two days after lawyers representing Marilyn Booker, Morgan Stanley’s former global head of diversity from 1994 until 2011, filed suit against her former employer and a wealth management executive there for racial discrimination and retaliation. Morgan Stanley rejects Booker’s claims.
People of color represent some 19% of Americas employees at the director level or above, which encompass executive director, managing director, and group managing director, Naratil also said at the internal meeting. Advisers who are people of color comprise some 10% of financial advisers in the Americas.
Naratil also said the business is accelerating its investment in diverse talent in the workplace, a spokesperson said.
He is also aiming to achieve a representation of 26% among people of color at the director level and above by 2025 in the Americas, with a goal of about 19% representation among financial advisers.
That includes a net increase in headcount of 300 Black or African American employees at the director level or higher, and adding 200 more Black or African American advisers.
UBS advisers in the Americas manage some $1.2 trillion, and its force of nearly 10,000 advisers globally manage some $2.3 trillion in assets as of March 31.
“Black Americans are clearly the ones that are least represented and that is where we clearly see opportunity to improve,” Naratil told Reuters at the time of a diversity report the firm released in February.
At the time, he said the bank hoped it would hold itself more accountable on matters of internal and external diversity if it voluntarily disclosed its figures at the firm level. He also said more work was required to improve diversity among its force of some 10,000 advisers, who are “primarily” white and male.
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