MUFG Bank to add 100 private bankers in securities venture with Morgan Stanley

The bank aims to have around 280 financial advisers in the next three years.

Bloomberg reports that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is planning to add 100 private bankers to its securities venture with Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. by transferring staff from its lending arm over the next three years.

This will bring the total number of financial advisers at the securities venture to 280, brokerage CEO Saburo Araki told Bloomberg, as the bank moves to generate fee income from its wealth unit in an effort to combat against the ultra low interest rates dampening lending profits.

Also read: MUFG weathers lacklustre lending gains after 2017 profits rose 6.8% to $8.98b

The firm is also assigning another 80 private bankers to target Japan’s super-rich, whose assets exceed $18m (2b yen), Araki added.

Japan trails behind the U.S. with the second-highest number of millionaires in the world, and about 45% of their wealth is stuck in cash, according to a recent Capgemini report.

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