As the debate in China rages over a UBS banker's perceived racial slur, the bank is reportedly enlisting client advisers in Asia in a bid to calm the furor.
Paul Donovan, a 26-year veteran of UBS, was put on leave by the Swiss-based bank last week amid a cultural maelstrom in China. Both Donovan, an economist and public face of the bank, and the wealth manager apologized last week in a damage control bid.
Now, UBS is enlisting the manpower of its private bankers in Singapore and Hong Kong to help defuse the scandal. The advisers are being asked to meet their wealthy Chinese clientele and explain UBS' position on Donovan's comments, and describe what the bank had done so far, newswire «Reuters» reported, citing anonymous sources.
Shut Out of Deal
The «calming drops» are meant to counteract a wave of negative responses in social media like WeChat unleashed by the scandal. In China, Donovan's remarks on swine flu were widely taken as a racial and cultural slur against the Chinese; UBS maintains they were innocently-intended. The bank was excluded from a key bond deal following Donovan's comments.
The snafu comes as UBS makes a big bet on China's wealthy as the country slowly opens its markets to foreign banks. The Swiss bank is among the most aggressive movers, despite some speedbumps. Hong Kong's banking regulator has been in touch with UBS over the matter and asked to be kept informed regularly.
