The chief executive of UBS Wealth Management Americas is holding to his target of reaching SFr1.0 billion ($1 billion) in profits within the next five years, in spite of depressed markets and a tough recruiting environment, Reuters reports.

Robert McCann, who set the target just a few weeks after he arrived at UBS in October last year, told the Reuters Wealth Management Summit yesterday that the target is still achievable, even though the unit last week recorded its sixth straight quarterly loss. He noted the unit has never made more than SFr600 million in yearly profit in its history.

"I didn't say anything last year that I will not say again this year," McCann said.

His comments came a few days after the Zurich-listed banking and wealth management group announced it had recorded net inflows into its wealth management operations in all major regions during the third quarter of this year, halting a trend of outflows. McCann, a former head of Merrill Lynch's wealth management operations in the Americas, has brought a number of former colleagues to UBS.

The other big goal McCann set last year was to rein in spending at the unit. He said he wanted to cut spending to 80 to 85 cents for every dollar the unit brought in within five years. In the third quarter of 2010, the unit spent $1.01 for every dollar it brought in.

On that front, McCann has reduced office space that had been amassed when the unit was seeking to build a 10,000-person advisor force. UBS also fired around 900 management and support staffers this year.

"Not only didn't that interfere with our ability to make revenue, it actually improved it," said McCann.