UBS, looking to strengthen its US wealth management operations, has discussed whether to hire former Merrill Lynch brokerage chief Robert McCann or former Citigroup chief financial officer Sallie Krawcheck to run the unit but hasn't made a decision, according to people familiar with the situation.

The talks are part of a wider reckoning inside UBS about the fate of its US brokerage unit. The Swiss bank's army of 8,760 brokers is slightly larger than it was last year, but it has seen about 6% of its brokers leave since September, said someone with knowledge of its operations. Last year, UBS considered selling the business to Morgan Stanley, which instead bought a controlling stake in Citigroup's Smith Barney unit, giving it more than twice as many brokers as UBS.