UBS' McCann Hires Ex-Merrill Executives

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Robert McCann, the new chief of UBS'(UBS Quote) wealth-management business in the U.S., has grabbed some former Merrill Lynch executives to help him revive the division of the Swiss bank.

McCann, who ran Merrill's wealth-management operation, said four former colleagues from Merrill, including Bob Mulholland, once the head of Americas for the Global Private Client Group, and Brian Hull, most recently the head of Merrill's Private Bank and Investment Group, will join him at UBS, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and others.

UBS also hired John Brown, who spent 29 years at various positions at Merrill, now a unit of Bank of America(BAC Quote), and Paula Polito, who has run the marketing departments of Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Fidelity Investments, the Journal says.

"We are going to assess the current state of the business, build a new strategy for the future and announce it by March 31," McCann told the newspaper.

UBS last week said it swung to a third-quarter loss on substantial charges and client withdrawals from its private bank.

The bank continued to see clients pull money during the quarter. Net new money outflows totaled 36.7 billion francs ($36.35 billion), although that was down from 39.5 billion francs in the second quarter and 83.6 billion francs in same quarter a year earlier. UBS said it didn't expect an immediate recovery in client net new money flows.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.