(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has recruited structured-lending specialist Charles Hannant from UBS Group AG as it expands its operations for the world’s ultra-wealthy.
Hannant is set to join the New York-based bank in early 2022, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the move hasn’t been made public.
Hannant spent about five years in UBS’s unit for lending substantial sums to clients of its investment bank and wealth-management division, including billionaires and family offices. He also spent almost a decade at Credit Suisse Group AG and worked in its cross-divisional lending unit before leaving in 2017.
Spokespeople for Goldman Sachs and UBS declined to comment.
Read more: Wall Street Is Throwing Cheap Credit at Ultra-Wealthy Clients
The world’s ultra-rich are increasingly borrowing large sums with interest rates at record lows and many assets appreciating in value. The loans, usually secured by homes or company stakes, provide the wealthy with cash to pay for their lifestyles without having to sell assets.
Goldman Sachs is boosting its wealth-management and consumer-banking business as part of a strategy outlined by Chief Executive Officer David Solomon to make it less reliant on trading. The unit’s revenue rose 35% in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $2 billion, with about $694 billion of assets under supervision as of Sept. 30.
The bank has hired at least nine private-wealth advisers in London this year from rivals including Barclays Plc, Julius Baer Group Ltd. and Union Bancaire Privee. Goldman Sachs is also expanding its private-wealth team in the Middle East, and this year named former UBS executive Gabriel Aractingi to lead its business in the region.