Dedicated NRI model
UBS
Sold India onshore twice — then built a formal global-NRI business unit spanning Dubai, Singapore and London.
Dedicated NRI team
Yes
Strategy tenure
dedicated NRI coverage since at least 2012
India onshore arc
Exited → partnership
Hubs
Dubai, Singapore, London
UBS runs the offshore Global-Indian wallet while outsourcing India onshore to a partner: in April 2025 it sold its onshore wealth business (substantially the inherited Credit Suisse India entities) to 360 ONE for Rs 307 crore, took warrants for a 4.95% stake worth some $220 million, and gained a referral leg — 360 ONE clients booked in Singapore move to UBS Singapore, formalised by a revenue-sharing Collaboration Services Agreement in November 2025. By 1 July 2026 the NRI franchise was a formal business sector — 'GWM APAC India International' — under a 'head GWM NRI and global NRI coordinator' (Michael Baechli, ex-Julius Baer), with coverage desks in Dubai, Singapore and London and a 3,000-hire technology centre in Hyderabad.
Why it matters
UBS has decided the Global-Indian wallet is an offshore business: it sold India onshore twice (2014, 2025) yet finished 2026 with the most formalised NRI structure of any global bank — a named business sector, a global NRI coordinator, and staffed desks in Dubai, Singapore and London — plus an equity-linked referral pipeline into India's largest UHNW wealth manager. The open question is retention: Julius Baer has already raided the very CS-inherited NRI bench UBS assembled — taking Dubai team head Sanjay Advani and two RMs in 2024 — in one of wealth management's most fiercely contested talent pools.
By the numbers
4.95% (~$220m)
Warrant stake in 360 ONE taken alongside the onshore sale
Reuters (Selena Li & Hritam Mukherjee), 22 Apr 2025 · Apr 2025
Rs 26,000 crore
Active AUM of the India onshore business transferred to 360 ONE
BW Businessworld, 22 Apr 2025 · Dec 2024
CHF 40bn+
UBS's own 2012 estimate of NRI invested assets in Asia-Pacific and Middle East
GlobalCapital, 5 Apr 2012 · Apr 2012 · self-reported
$641bn of $4trn
UBS APAC invested assets vs group total, Q1 2024 (the base the NRI push grows from)
Hubbis, 3 Jun 2024 · Mar 2024
$6.9trn
UBS group invested assets at signing of the 360 ONE Collaboration Services Agreement
Hubbis, 6 Nov 2025 · Nov 2025
~3,000 hires
Planned headcount at the new Hyderabad global capability centre over two years
Hubbis, 13 Feb 2026 · Feb 2026
The journey
NRI business formalised: 'GWM APAC India International' sector created, Baechli named head GWM NRI and global NRI coordinator
In the APAC reshuffle effective 1 July 2026, Vineet Mehta became deputy business sector head of GWM APAC India International with a functional line to Baechli; Conrad Huber — previously the global NRI lead — moved to business sector head GWM Philippines. The clearest public evidence of a dedicated, formalised global-Indian offshore unit.
Hyderabad global capability centre opens — ~3,000 hires planned over two years (India as tech spine, not client-facing)
The new GCC supports technology, finance and shared services with an AI focus, alongside existing operations in Pune and Navi Mumbai — UBS's India presence post-onshore-sale is infrastructure, not wealth coverage.
Collaboration Services Agreement signed with 360 ONE: cross-border referrals with revenue sharing
The 4 November 2025 agreement operationalises the two-way flow — cross-border client referrals and jointly offered wealth solutions, with a revenue-sharing model tied to client onboarding.
Dubai NRI bench deepened: ex-Citi veteran Avaneesh Mahodaya joins for ultra-wealthy NRI and GCC South Asian coverage
Mahodaya spent roughly 20 years at Citibank serving global NRI and South Asia clients through the Citigold Private Client platform, relocating from Singapore to Dubai for UBS.
Baechli effective as Market Head NRI/NRP Middle East, reporting to Zilkens; London adds to the 'global South Asia team'
Michael Baechli (20+ years in Indian/NRI wealth management, 15 years at Julius Baer where he developed its NRI business, then J. Safra Sarasin) succeeded the retiring Promit Ghose in Dubai. The same month, Amit Kachawaha (ex-DBS London) joined UBS London's global South Asia team under desk head Anuj Chhabra.
Hubbis, 6 Oct 2025 · WealthBriefing global moves summary (October 2025), 15 Dec 2025
CCI clears the 360 ONE transaction — the sold entities are the inherited Credit Suisse India subsidiaries
India's competition regulator approved 360 ONE's acquisition of Credit Suisse Securities (India)'s PMS, broking and distribution businesses plus a UBS Finance India loan portfolio, and UBS's subscription to warrants for 4.95% of paid-up capital.
Baechli reported incoming as Middle East NRI head; NRI team churns (Kaul in from BoS; Khan and Jain out); Abu Dhabi office planned
Market sources had Michael Baechli relocating from Singapore to Dubai to head the Middle East NRI business. At that date the global NRI business was led by Conrad Huber, supported by Singapore-based Vineet Mehta and Bikram Sen.
UBS sells India onshore wealth to 360 ONE for Rs 307 crore, takes 4.95% warrant stake, keeps the Global-Indian offshore wallet
The sold business — largely the inherited Credit Suisse India operations, with ~Rs 26,000 crore active AUM — went to 360 ONE; UBS took 2.05 crore warrants at Rs 1,030 apiece (nearly 5%, worth some $220m) and gained the offshore referral leg: 360 ONE clients booked in Singapore move to UBS Singapore. UBS India refocuses on investment banking and equity capital markets.
UBS Media Release, 22 Apr 2025 · Reuters (via Yahoo Finance UK), 22 Apr 2025 · BW Businessworld, 22 Apr 2025
UBS explores India onshore re-entry — Reuters reports preliminary talks for ~26% of a 360 ONE JV
The inherited CS India wealth team had shrunk from around 40 to 30; UBS weighed a JV/stake in a local firm. By 30 September, Reuters reported preliminary discussions with 360 ONE WAM for around a 26% JV stake — ambition later shrank to 4.95% warrants.
Hubbis, 12 Sep 2024 · Yahoo Finance UK (Zacks, citing Reuters), 30 Sep 2024
Iqbal Khan relocates to Asia as UBS's first APAC-based divisional president; Ermotti targets 20% of AUM from Asia
Khan assumed the APAC president role on 1 September 2024, succeeding Edmund Koh — the governance tailwind behind the India/NRI push.
Julius Baer raids the UBS Dubai NRI bench: Advani plus two relationship managers
Sanjay Advani — whom UBS had poached from Credit Suisse only a year earlier — became MD and team head of Julius Baer's global NRI business in Dubai; two more RMs moved with the wave.
APAC co-head Jin Yee Young lays out the India + NRI thesis a year before the 360 ONE deal
UBS retained the inherited CS onshore India operations, added at least seven relationship managers to the India wealth team, and covered NRIs offshore from Singapore.
Credit Suisse rescue hands UBS an accidental India onshore re-entry — and a diaspora talent pool
UBS weighed keeping CS's India private banking unit (just over 40 wealth management employees; India was CS's second-largest footprint outside Switzerland). Iqbal Khan met CS India wealth head Puneet Matta; UBS Singapore hired CS diaspora bankers including MD Gautam Anand.
Dubai and Singapore NRI desks staffed with Credit Suisse bankers; Gulf/Saudi/NRI coverage split into separate segments
Even before the CS rescue closed, UBS Dubai lined up Sanjay Advani and his NRI team from Credit Suisse, UBS Singapore added three CS private bankers for NRI coverage, and Niels Zilkens ran the global NRI business.
UBS exits India's onshore private-wealth market
UBS wound down its first India onshore wealth presence, part of a wave of foreign-bank exits. The exit is dated to 2014 in retrospective reporting; only the year is sourced.
Dedicated NRI/South Asia coverage already running; UBS sizes the NRI wallet at CHF 40bn+
A decade before the current build-out, UBS Wealth Management ran dedicated NRI coverage and published its own estimate of the diaspora opportunity. MD Vinay Gandhi described NRIs as financially astute global investors with a home-country bias.
Connections
Featured in: UBS ⇄ 360 ONE: the two-way structure that split India onshore from the Global-Indian offshore wallet · The Credit Suisse collapse seeded the modern NRI arms race · Bank of Singapore: the NRI sector's involuntary academy · Sell India onshore, double down on the NRI offshore — a pattern repeated four times · London → Dubai: the decade's biggest wealth migration, and India's counter-offensive
19 sources · all linked
Reuters (via Yahoo Finance UK), 22 Apr 2025 · BW Businessworld, 22 Apr 2025 · GlobalCapital, 5 Apr 2012 · Hubbis, 3 Jun 2024 · Hubbis, 6 Nov 2025 · Hubbis, 13 Feb 2026 · WealthBriefingAsia, 30 Jun 2026 · Hubbis, 25 Nov 2025 · Hubbis, 6 Oct 2025 · WealthBriefing global moves summary (October 2025), 15 Dec 2025 · Business Standard (PTI), 8 Jul 2025 · Hubbis, 24 Jun 2025 · UBS Media Release, 22 Apr 2025 · Hubbis, 12 Sep 2024 · Yahoo Finance UK (Zacks, citing Reuters), 30 Sep 2024 · SWI swissinfo.ch (Bloomberg), 10 Jun 2024 · finews.com, 2 Apr 2024 · Gulf News (Bloomberg syndication), 12 Apr 2023 · Gulf News (Bloomberg syndication), 19 Jan 2023