UBS exits recruiting pact, following Morgan Stanley

UBS Group AG''s Wealth Management Americas said on Monday it was quitting a 13-year-old recruiting agreement that ended the practice of suing brokers who quit for jobs at competing firms, following a similar move by rival Morgan Stanley last month.
In an email to the firm''s nearly 10,000 brokers, UBS Wealth Management Americas President Tom Naratil said his priority was for current advisers to increase productivity, "not recruiting advisers from our competitors." The agreement, called the Broker Protocol, was struck in 2004 between Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch and UBS, then called UBS Financial Services.