UBS Sees Outflows From Emerging-Market Clients as Secrecy Erodes

UBS Group AG, the biggest wealth manager, sees more emerging-market outflows ahead as tax authorities step up scrutiny of wealthy clients.

Net withdrawals from emerging-market clients amounted to 2.3 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion) in the second quarter -- much of it from Latin America, UBS said Friday. Outflows from the developing nations are picking up, just as an extended period of cross-border withdrawals within Europe is starting to taper off, Chief Financial Officer Kirt Gardner said.

After the U.S. and European countries conducted personal tax amnesties and hidden asset disclosure programs, countries such as Brazil and Mexico are making similar efforts to encourage wealthy people to pay back taxes or repatriate their offshore holdings. The Swiss government will start collecting data from its banks next year to share annually with other tax authorities taking part in the global automatic exchange of information regime. The first exchanges will be in 2018.

"We do expect those outflows to continue for the rest of the year and into next year, really in advance of the full implementation of automatic exchange of information, and naturally also as the emerging market countries implement their own amnesty programs," Gardner said on a conference call Friday.