The 8,000 advisers who work for UBS' wealth business in the Americas will know they have been handed a strong card with the appointment of Robert McCann.

UBS chief executive Oswald Grübel confirmed today that McCann would take over the wealth job and join the group's executive board. His predecessor, Martin Hoekstra, is leaving the group. Elsewhere, the bank's international division has been working hard to make a deal with the US tax authorities over the way UBS advisers were alleged to have helped clients evade tax. Nervous clients have closed accounts worth over Sfr155bn (€102.36bn) since March 2008, with sums managed in the Americas now totalling almost Sfr700bn.