Six private bankers have quit UBS AG in Singapore to join rival Goldman Sachs, banking sources said on Tuesday.

Six private bankers have quit UBS AG in Singapore to join rival Goldman Sachs, banking sources said on Tuesday.

The six include senior private banker Shern Liang Tan, who spent several years at UBS and who was previously with Citigroup. Three of the bankers have clients with assets of at least $50 million, banking sources told Reuters.

UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, has $100 billion in assets in Asia, equivalent to almost 10% of its global assets. UBS currently has more than 20 bankers in Singapore in its key client team, which handles wealthy individuals with assets of more than $50 million. Across the whole of Asia, it has a key client team of 60 bankers in total, a source said.

The moves are another sign of fierce competition among private banks to poach talent in Singapore. Tan Su Shan, managing director Citigroup Private Bank Singapore, told Reuters in January that the last two years had been particularly bad for private banks as rivals tried to lure teams of experienced bankers with extensive contacts books. Bankers say the situation has improved in 2007 because more graduates are coming out of universities and training institutes while private banks are also training bankers in-house.

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