Are two U.S. mutual fund distribution giants about to merge? Financial industry insiders have been buzzing about a possible purchase, by Wells Fargo, of UBS' wirehouse. Now a top exec at UBS insists that there is no such deal.

"I can tell you that it isn't true," Bob McCann, CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas, told Margaret Brennan on Bloomberg TV last week [see video]

Bloomberg's wire service followed up on the TV interview.

The rumors of a Wells-UBS merger are not new, and this isn't the first time McCann has fended such rumors off, either. The New York Post reported back in February 2009 that UBS and Wells held "preliminary talks" about setting up a joint venture along the lines of Citi and Morgan Stanley creating Morgan Stanley Smith Barney [see The MFWire, 2/3/2009]. Then in September 2009 UBS CEO Oswald Grübel fueled speculation by claiming that "current valuations" for the wirehouse weren't high enough to sell [see The MFWire, 9/29/2009]. Yet the next month, as UBS confirmed McCann's arrival at the firm, he insisted that the wirehouse was not for sale [see The MFWire, 10/27/2009]. Then talk of a Wells-UBS popped up again this spring [see The MFWire, 3/15/2011]. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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