McCann was promoted in December to oversee all of the bank's operations in the region after leading the U.S. retail brokerage to a pretax profit in 2011. Pretax income in the Wealth Management Americas unit was 504 million Swiss francs ($558 million), compared with a 2010 loss of 130 million Swiss francs. Clients added a net 12.1 billion Swiss francs of new money to their accounts last year, following outflows of 6.1 billion Swiss francs in 2010.
Ranking Declines
The U.S. investment bank, which includes trading and investment banking as well as mergers advice and underwriting, didn't fare as well. Among advisers on U.S. mergers and acquisitions, UBS tumbled last year to 10th with a 10 percent market share, from eighth and a 13 percent share in 2010. In 2008, the bank ranked sixth with an 18 percent market share.
"If you want to succeed globally you'd better be competitive in the United States," McCann said. "It is the largest fee pool in the world for investment banking."
McCann's role as regional CEO returns him to the trading and investment-banking side of Wall Street after spending eight years in retail brokerage.
He started his 26-year career at Merrill in 1982 as an associate in equity sales and trading, rising by the late 1990s to run the equities division. In the early 2000s, as Merrill faced allegations over misleading stock reports, he was put in charge of the firm's research division. In 2003, he moved to the brokerage side and in 2005 was named president of global wealth management by then-CEO Stan O'Neal.
Merrill Lynch almost collapsed in late 2008 because of bad bets on subprime mortgages made under O'Neal, and the firm had to sell itself to Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. McCann announced his resignation on Jan. 5, 2009, four days after the merger was completed. UBS received its own bailout in 2008 from the Swiss government.
At the time of his departure, Merrill Lynch's retail brokerage had about 16,090 financial advisers -- more than double the 6,697 U.S. advisers at UBS as of Dec. 31.