How One Firm’s Move Becomes Another’s Strategy
The stories the headlines don’t tell on their own: talent webs, deal structures, and repeating patterns that only appear when the record is read across firms.
01Deal web
UBS ⇄ 360 ONE: the two-way structure that split India onshore from the Global-Indian offshore wallet
360 ONE (formerly IIFL Wealth) launched 360 ONE Global in September 2023 to chase the non-resident-Indian wallet from Singapore and Dubai, hiring ex-Bank of Singapore veteran Vikram Malhotra as co-founder and CEO. That build was gutted on 3 April 2025, when Malhotra walked out with a team of ten — weeks before 360 ONE reset its entire international strategy around UBS.
On 22 April 2025 UBS sold its India onshore wealth business — substantially the Credit Suisse India entities it had inherited, with about ₹26,000 crore of active AUM — to 360 ONE for ₹307 crore, taking 2.05 crore warrants at ₹1,030 for a 4.95% stake worth some $220 million. In return, 360 ONE clients booked in Singapore move to UBS Singapore.
The referral leg was formalised by a revenue-sharing Collaboration Services Agreement signed on 4 November 2025. The net effect is a mirror-image structure: an Indian firm owns the onshore wallet, a Swiss bank owns the Global-Indian offshore booking, each refers clients to the other, and UBS is simultaneously 360 ONE's vendor, shareholder and booking partner. Ambition had shrunk along the way — from the up-to-26% joint-venture stake Reuters reported UBS exploring in September 2024 to the final 4.95% warrants.
8 Sep 2023360 ONE launches 360 ONE Global for NRIs; hires ex-BoS Vikram Malhotra as co-founder & CEO
Sep 2024Reuters reports UBS in talks on an India wealth JV with a minority stake of up to 26%
3 Apr 2025Malhotra exits 360 ONE Global with a team of ten, weeks before the UBS deal
22 Apr 2025UBS sells India onshore wealth to 360 ONE for ₹307 crore; takes 4.95% warrant stake (~$220m); 360 ONE Singapore clients move to UBS Singapore
4 Nov 2025UBS and 360 ONE sign a revenue-sharing Collaboration Services Agreement for cross-border referrals
Reuters via Yahoo Finance, Sep 2024 (UBS mulls India JV, up to 26%) · Reuters via Yahoo Finance UK, 22 Apr 2025 · UBS media release, 22 Apr 2025 · WealthBriefingAsia, 8 Sep 2023 · Hubbis, 6 Nov 2025
02Talent web
The Credit Suisse collapse seeded the modern NRI arms race
When UBS rescued Credit Suisse in March 2023, it inherited both CS's India onshore wealth team (just over 40 people) and CS's NRI bankers in Dubai and Singapore. Even before the rescue closed, UBS Dubai lined up Sanjay Advani and his non-resident-Indian team from Credit Suisse and added three CS private bankers in Singapore, all under global NRI head Niels Zilkens.
Those people then dispersed and built rivals' desks. Sanjay Advani left UBS in June 2024 to run Julius Baer's global NRI business in Dubai, taking two relationship managers with him. Gautam Anand — a Credit Suisse managing director who led its NRI desk in Singapore, hired into UBS in January 2023 — moved to HSBC and by April 2026 headed HSBC's 'Global India' franchise. Bikram Sen, who at UBS 'led the successful migration of the Credit Suisse NRI business,' resurfaced at Bank of Singapore as Global South Asia market head in October 2025.
The seeding ran wider still: EFG hired ex-Credit Suisse NRI bankers into Zurich in May 2023 to cover the global NRI market, and 360 ONE ultimately bought the very Credit Suisse India entities UBS had absorbed. One bank failure supplied the founding talent — and, in 360 ONE's case, the books — for a string of competitors' NRI franchises.
19 Jan 2023UBS lines up Credit Suisse's Dubai NRI team (Sanjay Advani) and three CS bankers in Singapore
May 2023EFG hires ex-Credit Suisse NRI bankers into Zurich to cover the global NRI market
1 Dec 2023Gautam Anand (ex-CS, ex-UBS) joins HSBC as global coordinator for Indian clients
10 Jun 2024Julius Baer hires Sanjay Advani from UBS to head its Dubai global-NRI desk (plus two RMs)
21 Oct 2025Bikram Sen, who migrated the CS NRI business at UBS, becomes Bank of Singapore's Global South Asia market head
Gulf News (Bloomberg), 19 Jan 2023 · SWI swissinfo.ch (Bloomberg), 10 Jun 2024 · finews.com (EFG ex-CS Zurich hires), May 2023 · Yahoo Finance (Bloomberg) — HSBC taps Gautam Anand as global coordinator, 28 Nov 2023 · HSBC Private Bank — appoints Gautam Anand Head of Global India, eff. 24 Apr 2026 · The Asian Banker — Bikram Sen to Bank of Singapore, 23 Oct 2025
03Talent web
Bank of Singapore: the NRI sector's involuntary academy
OCBC's Bank of Singapore runs the incumbent 'Global South Asia' franchise — and has become the single biggest talent donor in the offshore-Indian wealth race. Nearly every rival that stood up an NRI desk in 2023–26 staffed it, in part, with a Bank of Singapore banker.
The exits read like a league table. Global market head Vikram Malhotra left to co-found 360 ONE Global (2023); Aditya Kaul went to UBS (reported 2025); Sandesh Assao joined RBC's new Global South Asia team in Singapore (June 2026); team head Nikhil Jha became Barclays' Head of NRI in Singapore (July 2026); and within days of each other in late August 2026, DIFC chief Ranjit Khanna left to run EFG's Dubai Advisory Office and Global South Asia market head Harjeet Singh joined HSBC.
The counter-move under market group head Zubin Dabu is to rebuild the bench as fast as it is raided — re-hiring Bikram Sen (ex-UBS) as Global South Asia market head in October 2025 and importing team heads Ankit Swaika and Dinesh Chaudhary from Julius Baer, Priyanka Maheshwari from HSBC and Mitika Patel from UBS. The talent market is the competitive scoreboard: the same senior NRI bankers rotate between UBS, Julius Baer, Bank of Singapore, HSBC, Barclays, EFG and RBC.
8 Sep 2023Vikram Malhotra leaves Bank of Singapore to co-found 360 ONE Global
3 Jun 2026Sandesh Assao (ex-BoS) joins RBC's new Global South Asia team in Singapore
9 Jul 2026Nikhil Jha (ex-BoS) becomes Barclays' Head of NRI, Singapore
26 Aug 2026BoS DIFC chief Ranjit Khanna leaves for EFG's Dubai Advisory Office
27 Aug 2026BoS Global South Asia market head Harjeet Singh joins HSBC
WealthBriefingAsia, 8 Sep 2023 (Malhotra → 360 ONE Global) · Global Private Banker, 3 Jun 2026 (Assao → RBC) · WealthBriefing, 9 Jul 2026 (Jha → Barclays) · finews.com, 25 Aug 2026 (Khanna → EFG) · Private Banker International, 27 Aug 2026 (Harjeet Singh → HSBC) · The Asian Banker, 23 Oct 2025 (Bikram Sen rejoins)
04Strategic pattern
Sell India onshore, double down on the NRI offshore — a pattern repeated four times
The corridor's defining move is a repeat: a global bank sells its India onshore wealth business, then re-anchors its Indian franchise around the non-resident-Indian client offshore. The sell-down has happened four times in thirteen years.
Morgan Stanley sold its India private wealth unit (~$800m AUM) to Standard Chartered in 2013 — and, having also sold its EMEA/UK/UAE private wealth to Credit Suisse the same year, never rebuilt a diaspora desk. Citi exited India onshore private banking in 2021 and sold its entire India consumer business, including wealth management, to Axis Bank (completed 1 March 2023), retaining only its institutional clients in India while covering wealthy NRIs from its offshore wealth hubs. UBS sold its India onshore wealth to 360 ONE in April 2025 while keeping the Global-Indian offshore wallet. Deutsche Bank agreed to sell its India retail, affluent private banking and wealth business to Kotak in June 2026, its release retaining a 'continued focus on global ultra-high net worth clients (including non-resident Indians) outside of India.'
Every seller but Morgan Stanley re-anchored offshore; each buyer — Standard Chartered, Axis, 360 ONE, Kotak — used the purchase to bulk up onshore. Several global players never sold at all — Barclays, Standard Chartered, Julius Baer and LGT still run India onshore wealth today (Standard Chartered and Julius Baer built theirs by buying Morgan Stanley's and Merrill Lynch's exits) — and Barclays and Julius Baer now market that continuity as a differentiator.
May 2013Morgan Stanley sells its India private wealth unit (~$800m AUM) to Standard Chartered
1 Mar 2023Citi completes sale of India consumer business, including wealth, to Axis Bank
22 Apr 2025UBS sells India onshore wealth to 360 ONE, keeps the Global-Indian offshore wallet
30 Jun 2026Deutsche Bank agrees to sell India retail/affluent PB/wealth to Kotak, keeps NRI UHNW offshore
Yahoo Finance (Zacks), 22 May 2013 (Morgan Stanley → Standard Chartered) · Citigroup press release, 1 Mar 2023 (India consumer → Axis Bank) · Reuters via Yahoo Finance UK, 22 Apr 2025 (UBS → 360 ONE) · Deutsche Bank news release, 30 Jun 2026 (India business → Kotak)
05Wealth corridor
London → Dubai: the decade's biggest wealth migration, and India's counter-offensive
The push is British tax policy. The UK abolished its non-dom regime on 6 April 2025, replacing the remittance basis with a residence-based system and dragging long-term residents' worldwide assets into inheritance tax. Henley projected the UK would lose a record 16,500 millionaires in 2025; steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, a marquee Indian-origin name, decided to spend much of his time in Dubai, with inheritance tax cited as the reason.
The pull is the Gulf. The UAE, which overhauled its Golden Visa in October 2022 (10-year residence, no sponsor, an AED 2 million investor route), was projected to draw a record +9,800 relocating millionaires in 2025 — the world's top wealth magnet — anchored by DIFC's family-wealth machine.
India's counter-offensive runs on three fronts. Rates: the RBI's concessional FCNR(B) swap window (8 June–31 August 2026) pulled in more than $50 billion of NRI dollars, forcing offshore private banks to compete against Indian banks for the same deposits — HSBC alone out-mobilised every Indian lender, its FCNR(B) book jumping from $120 million to $6.26 billion in eight weeks. Policy: Budget 2026 doubled NRI equity caps (5%→10% individual, 10%→24% aggregate) and cut TCS. Structure: GIFT City was thrown open to 100% NRI/OCI money in IFSC funds and to residents' LRS dollars deployable worldwide — while the resident family-office route stayed frozen — and Standard Chartered won IFSCA approval to distribute wealth from the hub.
Gulf capital is now buying the corridor, not just hosting it: Emirates NBD took 60% of India's RBL Bank for about $3 billion (announced October 2025, completed June 2026), immediately bolting on an NRI proposition of FCNR(B) deposits and GIFT City foreign-currency banking.
6 Apr 2025UK abolishes the non-dom regime; residence-based tax and worldwide IHT begin
24 Jun 2025Henley: UAE +9,800 (record) vs UK −16,500 (record) millionaire migration, 2025
24 Nov 2025Lakshmi Mittal to spend much of his time in Dubai, citing UK inheritance tax
1 Feb 2026India Budget 2026 doubles NRI equity caps and cuts TCS
8 Jun 2026RBI's FCNR(B) swap window opens, pulling in >$50bn of NRI dollars
18 Jun 2026Emirates NBD completes its 60% RBL Bank acquisition (~$2.75bn infusion)
gov.uk guidance (updated 6 Apr 2025) — 4-year FIG regime · Henley & Partners press release, 24 Jun 2025 · AGBI, 24 Nov 2025 (Lakshmi Mittal → Dubai) · Mathrubhumi English, 1 Feb 2026 (Budget 2026) · WikiFX, 17 Aug 2026 (FCNR(B) swap window) · Business Today, 4 Aug 2026 (HSBC tops FCNR(B) mobilisation) · Reuters via Yahoo Finance UK, 18 Oct 2025 (Emirates NBD → RBL Bank) · Reuters via Yahoo Finance UK, 6 Aug 2026 (StanChart GIFT City wealth approval)