FORTY-SIX trainees are here to attend a one-year, $300,000 course on how to be a very good listener - one of the key attributes of a successful private banker.

This select bunch, including 13 Singaporeans, were handpicked from a massive field of 2,800 applicants to UBS' wealth management association programme.

As part of their training, they will receive both classroom and on-the-job training in empathy, product knowledge and leadership skills in financial hubs such as Singapore and Switzerland. The cost of the course, fully paid for by UBS, covers trainees' salaries, accommodation, travel expenses and course fees.

Among those who got picked: a former top-ranked Hong Kong professional tennis player; a programme manager with the World Economic Forum in Geneva; and a super-geek from Singapore.

The local trainee, 33-year-old Christopher Hwang, said he gave up his $150,000 a year job developing electronic payment systems to join the programme.

He said private banking was something he had always been interested in, being 'a people person'. So when he heard about the UBS programme, he promptly applied for it, as it gave him the 'confidence to switch careers and believe there is light at the end of the tunnel'.

And although he had other job offers from other private banking outfits, he turned them down, hoping the UBS application would succeed. Much to his relief, the offer came through, and Mr Hwang is looking forward to completing the training and joining the ranks of UBS' wealth management professionals, servicing the clients who have a personal wealth of at least $1.3 million each.

According to UBS global wealth management chairman Raoul Weil, who was in Singapore to meet the trainees, successful private bankers must have both 'a high emotional quotient (EQ) to relate effectively to the client and the IQ to offer him the best investment options'.

Capable private bankers, or wealth management professionals as the industry is now beginning to call these individuals, can expect to earn six-figure sums a year - if they can survive the long hours and sometimes demanding clients.

UBS, which is headquartered in Zurich, receives nearly half its income from private banking, and is one of the Asia-Pacific's largest wealth management outfits, looking after nearly $200 billion in private wealth.

In the Republic, it has 1,200 wealth management professionals, up from 500 two years ago, servicing both local and regional clients, although it does not disclose client details as a matter of policy.

According to a 2006 Boston Consulting Group report, the Singapore wealth management market is worth US$300 trillion (S$454.4 trillion). This is the second time that UBS has run the programme. Its previous intake last year had 33 trainees.

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