FACTBOX-Key facts about global wealth management

GENEVA (Reuters) - Ever more people will join the ranks of millionaires and billionaires in coming years, numerous studies show, making wealth management one of the fastest growing sectors in the financial industry.

Thriving growth in emerging economies, company founders selling off companies and soaring commodity prices are heaping wealth on clients described by banks as high net-worth individuals.

Following are a number of key facts about the industry, which serviced $33.3 trillion in global wealth last year. That number is expected to grow by some 6 percent each year to reach $44.6 trillion by 2010.

BIGGEST PLAYERS

Switzerland's UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is the world's biggest manager of private wealth with some $1.7 trillion of assets in its wealth management units.

The bank is even further ahead based on its private banking income as a percentage of overall revenues. That ratio stands at around 37 percent, making UBS the company most heavily exposed to this stable and profitable business.

Only Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 35 percent comes close. Other banks have ratios below 30 percent, according to Bear Stearns research.

An oft quoted ranking from consultancy firm Scorpio Partnership also ranks UBS as the biggest wealth manager.

It says Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) comes second, followed by Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), JP Morgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Wachovia Corporation (WB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Wealth management makes only a single-digit percentage contribution to profit for most of these players.

FRAGMENTATION

Wealth management is an extremely fragmented market, with leader UBS claiming a market share of a mere 3.5 percent and that of the rest of the top 10 banks a joint 18 percent.

In Switzerland alone, there are hundreds of smaller private banks, mostly privately owned and therefore not exposed to shareholder pressure for high returns.

That may well be one of the reasons why a long-predicted consolidation wave so far has failed to materialize.

HIGH AND ULTRA HIGH

Clients with $1 million or more in free investable assets are known as high net-worth individuals. People worth more than $30 million are called ultra high net-worth individuals.  Continued...