ZURICH, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS said it has set up a bank in Frankfurt to consolidate the majority of its European wealth management operations, a move aimed at conserving capital and streamlining its structure.

The world’s biggest wealth manager had already stated an attention to funnel the bulk of its European private banking business into one bank, UBS Europe SE, but had not determined where to house the headquarters.

With neutral Switzerland outside of the European Union, Luxembourg was a contender, along with London until Britain’s vote to leave the EU, but Frankfurt had long been viewed as the favourite.

The bank, in a statement on Thursday, said that by merging its wealth management subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain into one legal entity, “UBS has taken an important step to simplify its governance structure and increase operational efficiency across its European operations”.

Its Luxembourg subsidiary had covered Austria, Denmark and Sweden. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Susan Fenton)