(Adds quotes, details from third paragraph)

By Faith Hung

TAIPEI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) (UBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest wealth manager, expects its Asian assets under management to grow more quickly in 2009 than in 2008 as financial markets show signs of recovery and investors dip back into riskier assets, despite the global economy slowdown.

"U.S. stocks had their worst year in more than 100 years last year," paving the way for world markets to rebound this year, Dennis Chen, managing director for UBS's wealth management business in Taiwan, told reporters on Tuesday.

"We see lots of opportunities in China, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong," he said. "The markets with the most growth potential (for 2009) are China and Taiwan."

UBS said recently its Taiwan assets under management should grow faster in 2009 than the 20 percent expected for 2008 amid new contributions from recently opened branches, though the forecast was below the 50 percent growth achieved in 2007. [nTP166012]

Chen said the company's client assets in Asia grew in 2008 but declined to give a figure.

He would not elaborate on a specific outlook for 2009, but said this year's expected gains would come mainly from a rebound in share prices in addition to fresh investments from clients as investment confidence recovers.

Taiwan is UBS' third-biggest wealth management market in Asia and has been one of its best performers, but last year its stock market plunged 41.3 percent amid global financial market turmoil.