Swiss bank UBS retained its top spot as the Asia-Pacific region's top fee earner for the eighth year in a row this year, even as the region was hard hit by a global decline in banking revenue.

UBS's lead in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, where Nomura took the top spot, comes despite a series of high-profile defections in recent years and a $2.3bn rogue trading scandal that accelerated a strategy shift toward wealth management.