(SINGAPORE) Troubled Swiss bank UBS says its Asia-Pacific wealth management business is still seeing net inflows of new money, despite heavy withdrawals by clients elsewhere.

Asia-Pacific revenue stayed 'resilient' in the second quarter, amid higher volatility in financial markets and reduced activity in capital markets, UBS Singapore country head and chief executive Gerald Chan said yesterday.

'In the Asia-Pacific wealth management business, we continued to see positive net new money for the first and second quarters of 2008,' he said.

Net new money is the additional funds that customers give the bank to invest on their behalf, less withdrawals by those who take out money or close their accounts. The bank earns revenue from managing the assets.

The net new money inflow in the Asia-Pacific contrasts with the group's overall performance. UBS said yesterday in a statement from its Zurich headquarters that its wealth management businesses worldwide experienced a net outflow of 17.3 billion Swiss francs (S$22.5 billion) in the three months to end-June, compared with net inflows of 5.6 billion francs in the first quarter and 35.2 billion francs a year earlier.

The group does not disclose details of its performance by region, except in its full-year results. 'We continue to grow our client adviser team in Asia-Pacific,' UBS Singapore said in a statement yesterday, adding that the group has committed 'tremendous resources' to building its wealth management business in the region.

Mr Chan said the planned break-up of UBS into three separate units - wealth management, investment banking and asset management - is a 'significant step towards full recovery' for the group, which has suffered massive losses on investments in debt securities backed by US sub-prime mortgages.

He added the restructuring 'will result in increased operational responsibility, accountability and transparency'.

Last December, UBS sold 13 billion francs of convertible notes - 11 billion francs to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and two billion francs to an investor in the Middle East - to restore its capital base after writing down billions of dollars of sub-prime mortgage-related debt.

Earlier this year it raised another 16 billion francs in share capital through a rights issue.

'Our capital ratio has been rebuilt to the very strong levels UBS had prior to the outbreak of the credit crisis,' Mr Chan said yesterday.

In the Asia-Pacific, 'the foreign exchange and money markets business continued to experience a sharp rise in revenue, matching developments in that business across UBS globally', he added.