# Hopes on US-Iran Deal, UBS Asian Investment Conference

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 27 May 2026, 22 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/90cbcfcf-35c5-4991-849a-b45700268583/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. There was a lot of volatility in the oil market. Even so, there is optimism that the US and Iran will reach a peace deal despite fresh hostilities and uncertainty over the vital Strait of Hormuz. Markets are trading the prospect of an Iran deal, but the physical reset will take time, and dips in oil prices are likely to remain shallow and temporary until Hormuz is genuinely reopened. We spoke to Stephen Stapczynski, Bloomberg's Asia Energy Team Leader. Plus - UBS is holding its annual Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong. This year's theme is "Investing in an Age of Change" and will bring together top global business and economic leaders. Bloomberg's Stephen Engle spoke to Iqbal Khan, UBS APAC President and Co-President Global Wealth Management. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. Welcome to the Daybreak
[0:11] Speaker 1: Asia podcast. I'm Doug Krisner. Today's price action in markets
[0:15] Speaker 1: was driven by hope for a peace deal between the
[0:17] Speaker 1: US and Iran. Even so, the tensions between these two
[0:22] Speaker 1: spiked after their military forces clashed overnight near the Strait
[0:26] Speaker 1: of Horn moves Now. The US said it conducted self
[0:29] Speaker 1: defense strikes in southern Iran late Monday. Iran's foreign ministry
[0:33] Speaker 1: condemned the attacks as a violation of a ceasefire. We
[0:37] Speaker 1: have had a lot of volatility in the oil markets today.
[0:40] Speaker 1: In New York trading WTI was down about two point
[0:43] Speaker 1: eight percent, and the oil price in the electronic session
[0:46] Speaker 1: is continuing to drift lower. Interestingly, Brent actually rose more
[0:51] Speaker 1: than three and a half percent, although to be fair,
[0:54] Speaker 1: in Monday's European session, Brent was down by more than
[0:57] Speaker 1: seven percent. Let's take it closer look at these markets
[1:00] Speaker 1: with Bloomberg Steven Stepchinski. He is team leader for the
[1:03] Speaker 1: Asia Energy Unit and today's Steven joins from our studios
[1:07] Speaker 1: in Tokyo. Thank you for making time. I'm sure it's
[1:09] Speaker 1: been busy for you. So there seems to be some
[1:13] Speaker 1: type of optimism in the market that we're making forward
[1:15] Speaker 1: progress to some sort of peace negotiation. Does it seem
[1:20] Speaker 1: to be a little premature given this newsflow.
[1:24] Speaker 2: You know, what I find interesting is what the market
[1:26] Speaker 2: tends to latch on in terms of the news, because
[1:29] Speaker 2: you're right, they're latching onto the progress or latching onto
[1:33] Speaker 2: what the White House has said about these discussions continuing
[1:36] Speaker 2: comments from Secretary of State Rubio as well, that you know,
[1:40] Speaker 2: something could come in a few days. But when you
[1:45] Speaker 2: look at the situation on the ground, we're really in
[1:47] Speaker 2: no different where we were perhaps a week ago or
[1:50] Speaker 2: two weeks ago, or even a month ago. The straight
[1:52] Speaker 2: of horror moves is essentially closed. There is still a
[1:55] Speaker 2: little bit of tension, and you saw that with the
[1:58] Speaker 2: attacks overnight. But I think the main thing that the
[2:02] Speaker 2: traders are focusing on is the fact that there is
[2:06] Speaker 2: still discussions. I think there is a real fear, or
[2:10] Speaker 2: there was a fear for a while, that this ceasefire
[2:13] Speaker 2: would spiral away and then you would go back to
[2:16] Speaker 2: where we were in March, where the US was essentially
[2:20] Speaker 2: continuing quite a large amount of strikes on Iran, and
[2:24] Speaker 2: then Iran would have retaliatory strikes across the region, that's
[2:27] Speaker 2: not the situation. There aren't facilities being attacked in Qatar
[2:34] Speaker 2: or Saudi Arabia, and these talks are continuing, and so
[2:38] Speaker 2: as long as this doesn't spiral into a wider conflict,
[2:41] Speaker 2: even if there are some limited strikes in the strait
[2:44] Speaker 2: of horror moods like we saw in the last twenty
[2:45] Speaker 2: four hours, I think you could see prices continue to
[2:48] Speaker 2: trend down, but there will have to be a reality
[2:51] Speaker 2: check at some point because the market is getting tighter,
[2:55] Speaker 2: you're just physically not getting the flows. And while demand
[2:58] Speaker 2: destruction across a lot lot of Asia, you know, emerging
[3:01] Speaker 2: countries are just consuming less because they can't afford it.
[3:04] Speaker 2: How long does it take for that to start to
[3:07] Speaker 2: hit Europe or even the United States because the US
[3:10] Speaker 2: is exporting so much oil. So we are in a
[3:13] Speaker 2: wait and see situation. There does seem to be some
[3:15] Speaker 2: optimism in the market, but if there isn't a breakthrough soon,
[3:18] Speaker 2: I think the sentiment in the market could shift.
[3:22] Speaker 1: So I'm wondering if a portion of that optimism is
[3:25] Speaker 1: tied to the fact that there seems to be some
[3:28] Speaker 1: vessel movement supertankers exiting the strait at least two non
[3:33] Speaker 1: Iranian supertankers. From what I read in a Bloomberg story,
[3:36] Speaker 1: We're able to get through the Strait of horror moves
[3:38] Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Could some of the optimism be tied to
[3:41] Speaker 1: this kind of movement?
[3:43] Speaker 2: I think there likely is these supertankers in the grand
[3:47] Speaker 2: s game of like supply and demand. This doesn't move
[3:49] Speaker 2: the needle right. There were one hundred and thirty five
[3:52] Speaker 2: ships going through the Strait of Hormus on a daily
[3:54] Speaker 2: basis before the war began. We're at a handful, you know,
[3:59] Speaker 2: on a daily basis. But the fact that these ships
[4:02] Speaker 2: are being allowed to get through, and it's not just
[4:05] Speaker 2: oil supertankers. There were several look Fi natural gas ships
[4:08] Speaker 2: that have gone through over the last few days and
[4:11] Speaker 2: from the weekend. And that's a big deal because essentially
[4:13] Speaker 2: there were no energy ships going through at all since
[4:16] Speaker 2: the war began in late February. So there is some
[4:20] Speaker 2: indication that at least Tehran is allowing certain countries or
[4:25] Speaker 2: certain buyers to get their shipments. It does indicate that
[4:28] Speaker 2: they don't have this this super tight grip and that
[4:31] Speaker 2: they're allowing the vessels to get through maybe as a
[4:36] Speaker 2: negotiating tactic, maybe as a gift to some of those
[4:39] Speaker 2: lergy ships went to Pakistan, maybe as a gift for
[4:42] Speaker 2: Pakistan being a mediator in all of this. But again,
[4:45] Speaker 2: you know, just because these ships are going through doesn't
[4:48] Speaker 2: mean it solves the energy crisis situation. It is more
[4:51] Speaker 2: of a is the market looking at this as a
[4:53] Speaker 2: symbolic move, where Okay, these ships are going through, so
[4:57] Speaker 2: there must be an easing, Maybe talks are improving, and
[5:00] Speaker 2: maybe there could be a breakthrough.
[5:01] Speaker 1: It's interesting because, as you well know, Russia is a
[5:04] Speaker 1: major provider of crude oil to global markets. And I
[5:07] Speaker 1: was reading another story on Bloomberg indicating that Russia is
[5:10] Speaker 1: now considering limits on the exportation of both diesel fuel
[5:15] Speaker 1: and jet fuel as refinery run rates fall to multi
[5:19] Speaker 1: year lows, and that is because of an escalation in
[5:22] Speaker 1: attacks from Ukraine. I mean, that's kind of ironic, isn't it.
[5:26] Speaker 2: The Russian Ukrainian war is interesting because the Ukrainians will
[5:30] Speaker 2: always hit when there's a weakness in the enemy, and
[5:32] Speaker 2: there is a weakness for them now because diesel prices,
[5:36] Speaker 2: jet fuel prices are at a high and you know,
[5:40] Speaker 2: this is a good opportunity for Russia to be producing
[5:44] Speaker 2: and then exporting some markets, but at the same time
[5:46] Speaker 2: they need that fuel themselves. So when you hit these
[5:49] Speaker 2: refineries and you hit this pressure point, especially in a
[5:53] Speaker 2: market that is so tight like it is right now,
[5:55] Speaker 2: it is strategic and I think it also indicates not
[5:59] Speaker 2: just what's howening between Ukraine and and Russia, but also
[6:03] Speaker 2: what's happened wider in the Persian Gulf. The drone warfare
[6:08] Speaker 2: that has that has hit energy infrastructure. This is something
[6:11] Speaker 2: we haven't quite seen in modern history, that that a
[6:16] Speaker 2: regime can use uh pretty pretty small scale weaponry to
[6:23] Speaker 2: cause massive damage not just to facilities, but also to
[6:27] Speaker 2: markets and and affect consumers and affect prices and effect
[6:31] Speaker 2: inflation to such a degree it is we are certainly
[6:36] Speaker 2: in a new stage of of how how these wars operate.
[6:40] Speaker 2: I think one thing to really focus on is whether
[6:42] Speaker 2: Ukraine continues this and then they expand it to other
[6:45] Speaker 2: facilities or other ships. There was a liquefied natural gas
[6:48] Speaker 2: TANKERU part of Russia's Shadow fleet that was attacked in
[6:51] Speaker 2: the Mediterranean in March. It blew up, it's out of service.
[6:55] Speaker 2: Will we see that continue as well? Because as LNG
[6:59] Speaker 2: supplies are tight, gas supplies are tight globally, Russia could
[7:01] Speaker 2: use this opportunity to try to export more to Asia.
[7:05] Speaker 2: Will Ukraine try to target those as well. I think
[7:07] Speaker 2: that's something that the market will be monitoring.
[7:08] Speaker 1: So when you look at global inventories right now, I'm
[7:11] Speaker 1: particularly curious about the status of some of these strategic reserves.
[7:15] Speaker 1: We know that a number of jurisdictions were in the
[7:18] Speaker 1: process of releasing oil from those stockpiles. What do we
[7:22] Speaker 1: know about the level of global supply right now? Or
[7:24] Speaker 1: at least inventory.
[7:26] Speaker 2: Inventories are falling at I think the banks are saying
[7:29] Speaker 2: they're falling out a record rate over the last few weeks.
[7:32] Speaker 2: We're burning through the inventories quite quickly, even in the
[7:36] Speaker 2: United States, which is a massive producer. It's not that
[7:39] Speaker 2: the US is consuming a lot, it's just they're exporting
[7:42] Speaker 2: so much that it's reducing the supply that's in storage.
[7:47] Speaker 2: You know, I'm here in Japan right now. I've been
[7:49] Speaker 2: here this week on a trip talking to sources, meeting
[7:52] Speaker 2: with my team, and this is another country that is
[7:55] Speaker 2: facing a bit of an energy crunch. They're not getting
[7:59] Speaker 2: certain products that they need and even though crude oil
[8:03] Speaker 2: imports are rebounding in May compared to the previous month,
[8:07] Speaker 2: they don't have the refining capacity to create things like
[8:10] Speaker 2: nap them, and so they are looking at reserves here
[8:15] Speaker 2: as well. The government, I think just like everyone else.
[8:19] Speaker 2: You know, it's it's not just a Japan thing, but
[8:21] Speaker 2: just all these governments are looking at how to cushion
[8:24] Speaker 2: the blow to consumers. And you can only pull the
[8:28] Speaker 2: strategic reserve lever so many times. We've already had historic
[8:33] Speaker 2: releases by the G seven countries in coordination, and you
[8:37] Speaker 2: can only do that so many times. So then governments
[8:39] Speaker 2: are also looking at, okay, can we subsidize bills for
[8:42] Speaker 2: consumers to help easy inflation. But by doing that you're
[8:46] Speaker 2: also risking people continuing to consume and consuming more. Because
[8:50] Speaker 2: the cure for low supply is high prices. That's how
[8:53] Speaker 2: you reduce demand.
[8:54] Speaker 1: Steven will leave it there, Thank you so very much, Bloomberg.
[8:57] Speaker 1: Steven Stepchinsky. He is team leader of the Asia Energy Group,
[9:01] Speaker 1: joining from our studios in Tokyo today here on the
[9:03] Speaker 1: Daybreak Asia Podcast. Welcome back to the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
[9:15] Speaker 1: I'm Doug Krisner. We go to Hong Kong next where
[9:17] Speaker 1: global business and economic leaders are gathering for UBS's annual
[9:22] Speaker 1: Asia Investment Conference. And it's there we caught up with
[9:26] Speaker 1: Ikbal Khan. He is the president for the Apac at
[9:29] Speaker 1: UBS and he spoke with Bloomberg Stephen Engel.
[9:32] Speaker 3: What is top of mind of the many people who
[9:34] Speaker 3: have gathered here to talk about? Obviously a volatility in
[9:38] Speaker 3: the markets, the bond route, there's opportunities.
[9:41] Speaker 4: In Ai, there's China across the border. What's top of mind?
[9:44] Speaker 5: You know, we were just speaking you and I just
[9:47] Speaker 5: before this session that we spoke about one and a
[9:50] Speaker 5: half years ago in Shanghai at the.
[9:52] Speaker 6: GCC YEP and it feels different, right.
[9:54] Speaker 5: You see the wive and we have more than six
[9:57] Speaker 5: thousand participants here at the AIC Asia Investor Conference.
[10:00] Speaker 6: It is the flagship one UBS event.
[10:03] Speaker 5: We're very happy to have four hundred companies here with
[10:07] Speaker 5: a market cap of ten trillion. Clearly, geopolitics, macro, AI
[10:12] Speaker 5: and everything else is on people's minds. But what is
[10:14] Speaker 5: also interesting is that Asia is of interest, China is
[10:19] Speaker 5: of interest, Japan is of interest, India, Australia.
[10:22] Speaker 6: There's a lot going on in the world.
[10:26] Speaker 3: In China, I mean I've just come back from two
[10:27] Speaker 3: weeks there. Obviously, I've seen that vibe change as well,
[10:31] Speaker 3: and Hong Kong market is back. The IPO locomotive is
[10:35] Speaker 3: pretty strong. But there's been also some regulatory changes. We've
[10:38] Speaker 3: seen some crackdowns on outflows as some of the wealth
[10:42] Speaker 3: that has been created in China, they like to see
[10:44] Speaker 3: avenues of expansion abroad into Hong Kong come take advantage
[10:49] Speaker 3: of those IPOs and the like. How are you navigating
[10:51] Speaker 3: those raft of new regulations, including sort of a crackdown
[10:55] Speaker 3: on what I guess you could describe as unlicensed brokerages
[10:59] Speaker 3: who have been getting money out for people illegally according
[11:03] Speaker 3: to authorities.
[11:04] Speaker 5: I think it's too early to say, but fundamentally, as
[11:06] Speaker 5: you say, it's very focused on unregulated brokers. For us,
[11:11] Speaker 5: we've been in this business for a long time, right,
[11:13] Speaker 5: We've been in Asia for more than sixty years, we've
[11:15] Speaker 5: been in Mainland for more than thirty five years. We're
[11:17] Speaker 5: fully licensed, we have very strong policies, governance and processes.
[11:21] Speaker 5: We've been doing this for a very long time and
[11:23] Speaker 5: we know how to do this business. What is important
[11:26] Speaker 5: to us very much is we focus on multi generational
[11:29] Speaker 5: wealth globally as much as.
[11:31] Speaker 6: In Asia, and I think that's the big topic.
[11:33] Speaker 3: But how much do you need to step up compliance
[11:35] Speaker 3: or have been asked to step up compliance on the
[11:38] Speaker 3: sources of this wealth? Obviously that's a big concern that
[11:41] Speaker 3: authorities are seeing outflows. They don't want that, they don't
[11:44] Speaker 3: want to see the pressure on the remed bee and
[11:45] Speaker 3: the like.
[11:46] Speaker 4: So have there been knocks on the door at.
[11:49] Speaker 3: Ubs in Beijing saying you need to step up your compliance?
[11:53] Speaker 5: We run a very very strong compliance process, as you know,
[11:57] Speaker 5: So from our perspective, I think we've been running a
[11:59] Speaker 5: versus annable business if you look at our results and
[12:02] Speaker 5: also the inflows that you've seen in Asia just in
[12:05] Speaker 5: Q one have been very strong.
[12:06] Speaker 6: I think I think the momentum.
[12:08] Speaker 5: Strait is very strong and from our perspective, will continue
[12:11] Speaker 5: to work as we have in the focus of driving
[12:16] Speaker 5: our business and supporting our clients.
[12:18] Speaker 3: How does it impact though, when there is increased regulatory scrutiny,
[12:21] Speaker 3: how does it impact the onboarding of new clients?
[12:24] Speaker 5: So look, I think one of the things that has
[12:26] Speaker 5: become clear is that KYCMO is very important, has been
[12:31] Speaker 5: very important for a very long time and absolutely onboardings
[12:35] Speaker 5: have slowed down overall in the industry, and that's the focus.
[12:38] Speaker 5: I think the opportunity that we're seeing now with technology
[12:41] Speaker 5: and with AI is very much around simplifying, speeding up
[12:46] Speaker 5: the processes, not cutting cordiners, but actually fundamentally improving.
[12:50] Speaker 6: The process, consistency of process.
[12:52] Speaker 5: Just think about documenting source of wealths of an individual.
[12:56] Speaker 6: It's a pretty complex task.
[12:58] Speaker 5: But if AI can help you contect that and help
[13:01] Speaker 5: you actually do that and ensure that there's consistency, you're
[13:03] Speaker 5: going to fundamentally improve the process in addition to what
[13:07] Speaker 5: you're doing today.
[13:07] Speaker 4: Nice segue. AI. It's in everyone's discussion book right now.
[13:12] Speaker 3: Obviously, we just had Jamie Diamond of JP Morgan talking
[13:15] Speaker 3: about that. We've heard some comments that he got a
[13:17] Speaker 3: little bit of blowback. Bill Winters at Standard Chartered saying
[13:20] Speaker 3: it's going to have a significant impact obviously on maybe
[13:24] Speaker 3: some of the rank and files in the banking industry.
[13:26] Speaker 3: How do you see AI over the next couple of
[13:29] Speaker 3: years changing the way you hire and who you hire?
[13:32] Speaker 5: So let's step back, right. I mean, clearly there's a
[13:34] Speaker 5: lot of focus on AI. We see high valuations around AI.
[13:38] Speaker 5: There's a lot of talk around the value chain, everything
[13:43] Speaker 5: from actual lms to data centers to respective foundations infrastructure.
[13:48] Speaker 5: For US at UBS, we've been very focused on AI specifically,
[13:52] Speaker 5: also led and driven by Sanjo Multiar Group CEO. We've implemented,
[13:56] Speaker 5: for example, copilot across the board as just one example
[14:00] Speaker 5: to tell you, in the last six months, I've been
[14:01] Speaker 5: using it more myself and I've been using it personally
[14:05] Speaker 5: as well as professionally, and it has actually made me
[14:07] Speaker 5: more efficient, more effective, and I think over time everybody
[14:10] Speaker 5: will become an AI native.
[14:12] Speaker 6: It comes down to adoption and application.
[14:15] Speaker 5: Fundamentally, we look at this as something that will really
[14:19] Speaker 5: enhance and increase capacity. What does that mean as we
[14:22] Speaker 5: become more productive, we can use that capacity to grow.
[14:26] Speaker 5: We can use that capacity to serve our clients better.
[14:29] Speaker 5: Imagine at UBS, when you come in through the door
[14:32] Speaker 5: as a client, you get onboarded and if you're eligible
[14:35] Speaker 5: to getting a solution or service from a compliance and
[14:37] Speaker 5: regulatory perspective, it comes down to is that valuable to
[14:41] Speaker 5: you or not?
[14:42] Speaker 6: And we will serve you.
[14:43] Speaker 5: Now, all of that process is curated, semi automated, manual,
[14:47] Speaker 5: people driven. You can AIFI that if that's actually a
[14:51] Speaker 5: word to data, right, it is to do that you
[14:54] Speaker 5: can create a lot of capacity and that capacity can
[14:56] Speaker 5: be used to serve clients even better and grow.
[14:58] Speaker 3: What does it mean about top line job growth? Do
[15:01] Speaker 3: you cut back to get more efficient? How does it
[15:04] Speaker 3: work and.
[15:04] Speaker 4: How do you communicate that?
[15:06] Speaker 6: Look, at the end of the.
[15:07] Speaker 5: Day, as I said, I think it's more about productivity capacity. Now,
[15:10] Speaker 5: if we can use that capacity to serve our clients better,
[15:13] Speaker 5: gain more share of wallet, grow faster, grow more, then
[15:17] Speaker 5: the impact on costs and jobs is going to be less.
[15:21] Speaker 4: Now.
[15:21] Speaker 5: If we cannot, and this is an industry wide topic,
[15:24] Speaker 5: then of course it will have ramifications and implications on
[15:27] Speaker 5: costs and jobs.
[15:29] Speaker 3: Jamie Diamond talked about he wants to hire perhaps more
[15:32] Speaker 3: people who are AI experts than the traditional investment bankers.
[15:37] Speaker 4: Does that make sense to you much?
[15:39] Speaker 5: Look, I'm not going to comment on what Jamie Diamond said,
[15:43] Speaker 5: but fundamentally, the way I'm looking at this, and I'm
[15:45] Speaker 5: not an expert, right, I really don't want to say
[15:47] Speaker 5: I'm ANYI expert, But fundamentally, what I've been realizing is
[15:50] Speaker 5: this is the biggest transformation we're going to see, and
[15:53] Speaker 5: it's more about upskilling our people and us learning. But
[15:57] Speaker 5: it's also about how are you going to use AI,
[15:59] Speaker 5: how are you going to adopt AI? And more importantly,
[16:02] Speaker 5: how do I become MEI needed? And you cannot do
[16:05] Speaker 5: that if you don't use AI yourself.
[16:07] Speaker 4: Right.
[16:07] Speaker 5: I've actually started to build my own agents, and fundamentally,
[16:10] Speaker 5: an agent is nothing but multiple complex prompts, right, And
[16:13] Speaker 5: I actually use those agents and it made me.
[16:15] Speaker 6: More efficient and more productive.
[16:17] Speaker 5: And if you can actually do that across a significant
[16:19] Speaker 5: scale of franchise, imagine what that could do to your business.
[16:24] Speaker 5: I need to put their risks as well with AI,
[16:26] Speaker 5: and we need to be very mindful of all the
[16:28] Speaker 5: risks that come with AI.
[16:29] Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's for perhaps later discussions as well as we
[16:32] Speaker 3: kind of see this totally being adopted.
[16:34] Speaker 4: But I do need to pivot to the Middle East.
[16:36] Speaker 4: You're having some job movements.
[16:38] Speaker 3: Obviously, your wealth EMEA head is moving to the Gulf region.
[16:43] Speaker 3: Also your regional head is moving to I believe Doha.
[16:46] Speaker 3: But the war obviously is at the backdrop. Are you
[16:49] Speaker 3: seeing how are you seeing? Because the Middle East is
[16:51] Speaker 3: important for UBS, no doubt.
[16:53] Speaker 4: Have you been seeing over.
[16:54] Speaker 3: The last twelve month, twelve weeks of the war, shifts
[16:58] Speaker 3: of wealth, shifts of funds two places like Singapore and
[17:01] Speaker 3: Hong Kong.
[17:03] Speaker 5: We're a global franchise, right, Every region contributes more or
[17:06] Speaker 5: less the same bottom line, specifically in wealth management, be
[17:09] Speaker 5: that Asia, Emia, Switzerland or the Americas.
[17:11] Speaker 6: Which really makes us globally diversified. In that context. Of course,
[17:14] Speaker 6: the Middle East is important.
[17:15] Speaker 5: Middle East has been an area of growth from a
[17:19] Speaker 5: wealth management perspective, from a business perspective, from an investment perspective. Clearly,
[17:24] Speaker 5: this war has created a setback quite obviously, and it
[17:30] Speaker 5: will really come down to when we see a piece
[17:33] Speaker 5: deal and what that fundamentally then means economically. Having said that,
[17:37] Speaker 5: we're pretty constructive on the Middle East. We believe that
[17:39] Speaker 5: there's going to be opportunity in the Middle East from
[17:42] Speaker 5: a mid to long term perspective.
[17:43] Speaker 6: We're not a short term business.
[17:45] Speaker 5: We're a long term, as I said, multi generational business.
[17:48] Speaker 5: In that context, Yes, we're moving Christinovokovic are head of
[17:51] Speaker 5: Wealth management and MIA to Ua Abu Dhabi, and Neil Silkins,
[17:56] Speaker 5: who ran Middle East, who was actually based out of
[17:59] Speaker 5: Ua Dubai, is going to be moving to Dohakal.
[18:01] Speaker 3: The what are you hearing from clients the concern that
[18:05] Speaker 3: there could be and there is already going to get
[18:07] Speaker 3: some readings of inflationary impact.
[18:09] Speaker 4: We're going to get a reading tomorrow in the US.
[18:12] Speaker 3: Obviously the war is causing oil price shock, inflationary pressures.
[18:16] Speaker 3: That's going to have an impact on borrowing costs and
[18:18] Speaker 3: the FED. I think the bets are almost even right now,
[18:20] Speaker 3: either a cut or a hike.
[18:23] Speaker 4: How do you read it?
[18:25] Speaker 5: So when we talk one and a half years ago,
[18:28] Speaker 5: we talked about diversification, right, Clients need to diversify and
[18:32] Speaker 5: focus on high value, all weather investment portfolios.
[18:37] Speaker 6: That's the key, and that's important. We continue that perspective.
[18:41] Speaker 5: If you weren't going into last year going to this
[18:43] Speaker 5: year on a diversified basis, you missed out and you
[18:46] Speaker 5: potentially took some fat tail risks.
[18:49] Speaker 6: From our perspective, that continues to be true.
[18:52] Speaker 5: Be diversified, build a sustainable portfolio, an investment.
[18:56] Speaker 6: Portfolio that is actually all weather.
[18:58] Speaker 5: Currently clear leaders offer coortunity and continued opportunity and equities,
[19:02] Speaker 5: there's an opportunity to lock in high yields and high
[19:05] Speaker 5: high income. Yes, there's a lot going on macro as
[19:09] Speaker 5: much as geopolitics. Having said all of that, fundamentally, there
[19:13] Speaker 5: are also times where you can be hedging, and we've
[19:15] Speaker 5: been actually clearly focused on helping our clients build better
[19:19] Speaker 5: investment portfolies.
[19:20] Speaker 6: That's what we really do.
[19:21] Speaker 5: That's what we're here for, helping our clients navigate these
[19:25] Speaker 5: markets and helping them invest better.
[19:27] Speaker 3: We talked about some of the challenges in wealth management. Obviously,
[19:30] Speaker 3: sources of income is a big one. I might go
[19:32] Speaker 3: granular here and talk about Singapore. I think MAAS, the
[19:36] Speaker 3: Monetary Authority of Singapore, is talking about maybe reducing the
[19:39] Speaker 3: amount of time it takes to get clients on board
[19:41] Speaker 3: as far as opening up new counts, and I know
[19:43] Speaker 3: relationship managers have been saying it takes far too long.
[19:46] Speaker 4: Has that been a significant hindrance? And how are you
[19:49] Speaker 4: working through those regulatory issues?
[19:50] Speaker 5: And it's it's interesting you mentioned Singapore and MAAS because
[19:53] Speaker 5: as part of this AIC Week Asia Investor conference, a week
[19:56] Speaker 5: we started out from Singapore, we have the privilege of
[19:59] Speaker 5: having Chogg Urgent, managing director of MAS speak and he
[20:03] Speaker 5: did speak about focus on onboarding times.
[20:06] Speaker 6: Fundamentally, I think there's a clear.
[20:07] Speaker 5: Realization amongst forward looking regulators and forward looking industry experts
[20:12] Speaker 5: that yes, we need to have sound onboarding processes, we
[20:17] Speaker 5: have to have sound kyc AML.
[20:19] Speaker 6: Processes, but equally it has to.
[20:21] Speaker 5: Be efficient and effective and has to be risk based.
[20:25] Speaker 5: And I actually applaud the focus of Charter Diurgen and
[20:29] Speaker 5: the MS and Singapore to actually look at how can
[20:33] Speaker 5: you improve onboarding. It's also about client experience, onboarding experience as.
[20:38] Speaker 6: Much as it is about what is the sound process.
[20:40] Speaker 5: And I think technology today and I don't want to
[20:43] Speaker 5: belabor the AI point once again, but fundamentally it should
[20:47] Speaker 5: help us achieve some of these things.
[20:49] Speaker 1: That's Hickball Cohn, APAC president at UBS, speaking to Bloomberg
[20:53] Speaker 1: Steven Engel from the sidelines of the UBS Asia Investment Conference,
[20:57] Speaker 1: bringing you their conversation here on the day Break Asia Podcast.
[21:03] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak
[21:06] Speaker 1: Asia Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story
[21:10] Speaker 1: shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You
[21:14] Speaker 1: can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel,
[21:18] Speaker 1: or anywhere else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for
[21:21] Speaker 1: insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore
[21:25] Speaker 1: and Australia. I'm Doug prisoner, and this is Bloomberg

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