UBS

UBS's global wealth management advisory division offers high-net-worth individuals around the world a range of advisory and investment products and services.[28] As of the end of 2016, UBS Wealth Management's invested assets totalled CHF 977billion.[29] The whole companies assets under management (AUM) amounted to US$1,737.5 billion in 2015, representing a 1% decrease in AUM compared to the equivalent data of 2014.[30] As of 2018, UBS manages the largest amount of private wealth in the world, counting approximately half of the world's billionaires among its clients.[nb 4] More than 60% of total invested assets in UBS Wealth Management belong to individuals with a net worth of CHF 10 million or more. Of the remaining 40% of total invested assets, 30% of the total belong to individuals with net worth between CHF 1 million and CHF 10 million and the last 10% of total assets belong to individuals with a net worth of less than CHF 1 million.[28] UBS offers brokerage services and products as well as asset management and other investment advisory and portfolio management products and services.[33][34] Additionally, UBS provides a broad range of securities and savings products that are supported by the firm's underwriting and research activities as well as order execution and clearing services for transactions originated by individual investors. The business is further divided geographically with separate businesses focused on the U.S. and other international markets.[21][35] Two thirds of the total invested assets come from Europe and Switzerland, with the final third coming mainly from the Asia-Pacific region.

UBS U.S. wealth management headquarters at Lincoln Harbor in Weehawken, New Jersey

With its headquarters in Switzerland, UBS Wealth Management is present in more than 40 countries with approximately 190 offices (100 of which are in Switzerland).[28] As of the end of 2018, around 23,600 people worldwide were employed by Global Wealth Management.[20][29] In Switzerland, UBS Swiss Bank provides a complete set of retail banking services that includes chequing, savings, credit cards, and mortgage products for individuals.[36] They offer cash management and commercial banking services for small businesses and corporate clients as well.[36]

UBS global wealth management advisory operations in the Americas consists of U.S. and Canadian wealth management businesses, as well as international business booked in the U.S.[37] UBS Wealth Management in the U.S. is an outgrowth of the former Paine Webber brokerage business. The business was initially renamed UBS Paine Webber in March 2001 after it was acquired by UBS. The division offers a fully integrated set of wealth management advisory solutions for ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients.[38] UBS was named "Best Bank for Wealth Management in North America" at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2017.[39]

UBS's main competitors in this division are Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab.[40]

UBS's Personal & Corporate Banking division delivers financial products and services to retail,[41] corporate and institutional clients[42] in Switzerland.[28] It also provides stable and substantial profits for the Group and revenue opportunities for businesses within the bank.[28] UBS maintains a leading position in the retail and corporate loan market in Switzerland; in fact, it serves one in three pension funds, more than 85% of the 1,000 largest Swiss corporations and 85% of banks that resides within the nation.[28] In 2015, 2017 and 2018, the international financial magazine Euromoney named UBS "Best Domestic Cash Manager Switzerland".[43] As of 31 December 2018, its lending portfolio reached US$131 billion.[44][20]

The products that this UBS division offers range from cash accounts, payments, savings and retirement solutions to investment fund products, residential mortgages and advisory services.[28] This business division constitutes a central building block of UBS's universal bank delivery model in Switzerland and it supports other divisions, such as Investment Bank, by referring clients to them and by assisting them to build their wealth to a level at which they can be transferred to UBS Wealth Management.[28] The retail and corporate distribution network comprises not only 279 branches in Switzerland, but 1,250 teller machines and self-service terminals, as well as digital banking services, serving 2.5 million personal banking clients.[28][20]

UBS's main competitor in this division is Credit Suisse.

The entrance of UBS Tower at One North Wacker Drive, a 50-story skyscraper in downtown Chicago

UBS Asset Management offers equity, fixed income, currency, hedge fund, global real estate, infrastructure and private equity investment capabilities that can also be combined in multi-asset strategies.[45] The 1998 UBS-SBC merger and subsequent restructuring resulted in the combination of three major asset management operations: UBS Asset Management, Phillips & Drew (owned by Union Bank of Switzerland), and Brinson Partners (owned by SBC). The investment teams were merged in 2000 and in 2002 the brands were consolidated to become UBS Global Asset Management.[46]

At the end of December 2018, UBS Asset Management was responsible for US$781 billion of invested assets and the assets under administration were US$413 billion. [44][20] With around 2,300 employees in 23 countries, UBS Asset Management is the largest mutual fund manager in Switzerland, a leading fund house in Europe, and one of the largest hedge funds and real estate investment managers in the world.[47][48] It has main offices in Chicago, Hong Kong,[49] London,[50] New York, Singapore,[51] Sydney,[52] Tokyo, and Zürich.[53][20] With the aim to generate systematic products and solutions for client, in 2017, UBS integrated Equities, Fixed Income and Solutions capabilities and hedge funds business within a new area named Investments. UBS also formed a new area of business named Real Estate and Private Markets by combining their Global Real Estate and Infrastructure and Private Equity businesses.[28]

In February 2017, UBS Group AG and the Northern Trust Corporation, an American international financial services company, announced an agreement for the acquisition of UBS Asset Management's fund administration servicing units in Luxembourg and Switzerland. This acquisition will facilitate the expansion of the Northern Trust Corporation into these two countries, turning the American company into the major fund administrator in the local markets and into one of the ten global leaders in the sector. At the end of the transaction, completed in October 2017,[54] the American company will administrate a total of CHF 420 billion in assets. UBS Asset Management will continue anyway to offer Management Company, White Labelling and Representative Services to its clients. Ulrich Körner, president of the UBS Asset Management, affirms that the continuous transformation of their platform is due to a major efficiency, effectiveness and geographical dislocation of the services offered by the bank.[55]

UBS's main competitors in this division are BlackRock, Vanguard Group, State Street Global Advisers (SSGA), Fidelity Investments and Allianz Asset Management (AAM).[56]

UBS Investment Bank's former offices in Stamford, Connecticut. At roughly the size of two American football fields, it was the largest column-less trading floor in the world.[57]

UBS Investment Bank provides services covering securities, other financial products, and research in equities, rates, credit, foreign exchange, precious metals and derivatives.[58] As of the end of December 2018, the personnel employed at UBS Investment Bank totalled 5,205, present in 33 countries (with principal offices in Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and Zurich).[44][20] This business division also advises and provides access to capital markets for corporate and institutional clients, governments, financial intermediaries, alternative asset managers, and private investors.[36] UBS Investment Bank was formerly known as UBS Warburg and as Warburg Dillon Read, before the merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC). Within the UBS Investment Bank division, the Investment Banking Department (IBD) provides a range of advisory and underwriting services including mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, equity offerings, investment grade and high yield debt offerings, leveraged finance and leveraged loan structuring, and the private placement of equity, debt, and derivatives.

The Sales & Trading division comprises equities (brokering, dealing, market making and engaging in proprietary trading in equities, equity-related products, equity derivatives, and structured products) and FX, Rates and Credit (FRC) (brokering, dealing, market making and engaging in proprietary trading in interest rate products, credit products, mortgage-backed securities, leveraged loans, investment grade and high-yield debt, currencies, structured products, and derivative products). Following an expansion in 2002, the trading floor covers 9,600-square-metre (103,000 sq ft) with 12-metre (40 ft) arched ceilings. Over US$1 trillion in assets are traded here every trading day. In June 2011, it was announced that UBS was considering moving its North American headquarters back to New York City, and that the bank was looking for office spaces in Midtown and in the rebuilt World Trade Center.[59][60]

UBS's main competitors in this division are fellow members of the Bulge Bracket,[61] particularly Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch.[62][63] The American division also offers its own credit card not sponsored by another bank unlike many of its competitors.[64]

Swiss Bank Corporation logo (ca. 1973), featuring the three keys meant to symbolize confidence, security, and discretion

UBS, through Swiss Bank Corporation, traces its history to 1854 when six private banking firms in Basel, Switzerland pooled their resources to form the Bankverein, a consortium that acted as an underwriting syndicate for its member banks.[71] In 1871, the Bankverein coordinated with the German Frankfurter Bankverein to form the Basler Bankverein, a joint-stock company replacing the original Bankverein consortium.[71] After the new bank started with an initial commitment of CHF 30 million and CHF 6 million of share capital, it soon experienced growing pains when heavy losses in Germany caused it to suspend its dividend until 1879.[71] Following the years 1885 and 1886, when the bank merged with the Zürcher Bankverein and acquired the Basler Depositenbank and the Schweizerische Unionbank, it changed its name to Schweizerischer Bankverein.[71] The English name of the bank was originally Swiss Bankverein, but was changed to Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) in 1917.[72]

The Basel offices of Swiss Bank Corporation c.1920[73]

SBC subsequently experienced a period of growth, which was only interrupted by the onset of World War I, in which the bank lost investments in a number of large industrial companies. By the end of 1918, the bank had recovered and surpassed CHF 1 billion in total assets and grew to 2,000 employees by 1920. The impact of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression was severe, particularly as the Swiss franc suffered major devaluation in 1936. The bank saw its assets fall from a 1929 peak of CHF 1.6 billion to its 1918 levels of CHF 1 billion by 1936.[72][71]

In 1937, SBC adopted its three-keys logo, designed by Warja Honegger-Lavater, symbolizing confidence, security, and discretion, which remains an integral part in the current-day logo of UBS.[71] On the eve of World War II in 1939, SBC, like other Swiss banks, was the recipient of large influxes of foreign funds for safekeeping. Just prior to the outbreak of the war, SBC made the timely decision to open an office in New York City.[74] The office, located in the Equitable Building, was able to begin operations a few weeks after the outbreak of the war and was intended as a safe place to store assets in the case of an invasion.[75] During the war, the banks' traditional business fell off and the Swiss government became their largest client.[72]

In 1945, SBC acquired the Basler Handelsbank (Commercial Bank of Basel), which was one of the largest banks in Switzerland, but became insolvent by the end of the war. SBC remained among the Swiss government's leading underwriters of debt in the post-war years. SBC, which had entered the 1950s with 31 branch offices in Switzerland and three abroad, more than doubled its assets from the end of the war to CHF 4 billion by the end of the 1950s and doubled assets again in the mid-1960s, exceeding CHF 10 billion by 1965.[71] In 1961, SBC acquired Banque Populaire Valaisanne, based in Sion, Switzerland and the Banque Populaire de Sierre.[46] The bank opened a full branch office in Tokyo in 1970.[71]

The St. Gallen, Switzerland, offices of Swiss Bank Corporation c.1920

In 1992, SBC acquired O'Connor & Associates, a Chicago-based options trading firm and the largest market maker in the financial options exchanges in the U.S.[76] O'Connor was combined with SBC's money market, capital market, and currency market activities to form a globally integrated capital markets and treasury operation.[76] In 1994, SBC acquired Brinson Partners, an asset management firm focused on providing access for U.S. institutions to global markets, for US$750 million.[77] Following the acquisition, founder Gary P. Brinson ran SBC's asset management business and later when SBC merged with UBS was named chief investment officer of UBS Asset Management.[78] The acquisition of S.G. Warburg & Co., a leading British investment banking firm, in 1995 for the price of US$1.4 billion signified a major push into investment banking. S.G. Warburg & Co. had established a reputation as a daring merchant bank that grew to be one of the most respected investment banks in London.[79] However, a Warburg expansion into the U.S. had turned out flawed and costly, and talks in 1994 with Morgan Stanley about a merger had collapsed.[80] SBC merged the firm with its own existing investment banking unit to create SBC Warburg.[77][81]

Two years later, in 1997, SBC paid US$600 million to acquire Dillon, Read & Co., a U.S. bulge bracket investment bank.[82][83] Dillon, Read & Co., which traced its roots to the 1830s, was among the powerhouse firms on Wall Street in the 1920s and 1930s, and by the 1990s had a particularly strong mergers and acquisitions advisory group. Dillon Read had been in negotiations to sell itself to ING, which owned 25% of the firm already, but Dillon Read partners balked at ING's integration plans.[82] After its acquisition by SBC, Dillon Read was merged with SBC-Warburg to create SBC-Warburg Dillon Read. Following SBC's later merger with Union Bank of Switzerland, the SBC part was dropped from the name; in 2000 when the new UBS got restructured the Dillon Read name was dropped, although it was brought back in 2005 as Dillon Read Capital Management, UBS's ill-fated hedge fund operations.[71]

1966 Union Bank of Switzerland logo, featuring the two acronyms of its English and French names (UBS) and its German counterpart (SBG)

The Union Bank of Switzerland emerged in 1912 when the Bank in Winterthur fused with the Toggenburger Bank. The Bank in Winterthur, founded in 1862 with an initial share capital of CHF 5 million, focused on providing financing for industry and other companies,[72][71] and had profited considerably from its close railroad connections and large warehousing facilities during the American Civil War when cotton prices rose dramatically.[84] The Toggenburger Bank was founded in 1863 with an initial share capital of CHF 1.5 million,[71] and specialized as a savings and mortgage bank for individual customers, maintaining a branch office network in eastern Switzerland.[85][71] The new company was initially traded under the English name Swiss Banking Association, but in 1921 it was changed to Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) to mirror its French name, Union de Banques Suisses. In German, the bank was known as the Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft (SBG).[86]

Bank in Winterthur, est. 1862

Toggenburger Bank, est. 1863

The combined bank had total assets of CHF 202 million and a total shareholders' equity of CHF 46 million.[71] In 1917, UBS completed the construction of a new headquarters in Zurich on Bahnhofstrasse, considered to be the Wall Street of Switzerland.[72] By 1923, offices were established throughout Switzerland.[85] Although the bank suffered in the aftermath of World War I and the Great Depression, it was able to make several smaller acquisitions; in 1937 it established Intrag AG, an asset management business responsible for investment trusts, (i.e. mutual funds).[71][85]

UBS held large amounts of stolen gold in their bank vaults during World War II. Pictured: A UBS-issued gold bar, melted down from "unclaimed assets" deposited in the bank.

The activities of the Union Bank of Switzerland during World War II were not publicly known until decades after the war, when it was demonstrated that UBS likely took active roles in trading stolen gold, securities, and other assets during World War II.[87][88] The issue of "unclaimed property" of Holocaust victims became a major issue for UBS in the mid-1990s, and a series of revelations in 1997 brought the issue to the forefront of national attention in 1996 and 1997.[89] UBS confirmed that a large number of accounts had gone unclaimed as a result of the bank's policy of requiring death certificates from family members to claim the contents of the account.[90][91] UBS's handling of these revelations were largely criticized and the bank received significant negative attention in the U.S.[92][93] UBS came under significant pressure, particularly from American politicians, to compensate Holocaust survivors who were making claims against the bank.[94]

In 1917, the Union Bank of Switzerland opened a new headquarters on Bahnhofstrasse (pictured above) in Zürich.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Union Bank of Switzerland completed the acquisition of the Eidgenössische Bank, a large Zürich-based bank that became insolvent. As a result of the merger, Union Bank of Switzerland exceeded CHF 1 billion in assets and moved its operations to Zürich. UBS opened branches and acquired a series of banks in Switzerland in the following years, growing from 31 offices in 1950 to 81 offices by the early 1960s.[71] In 1960, Union Bank of Switzerland acquired an 80% stake in Argor SA, a Swiss precious metals refinery founded in 1951 in the canton of Ticino.[46] UBS continues to issue gold bars via Argor-Heraeus which is famous for the unique kinebar holographic technology it uses to provide enhanced protection against bank gold bar counterfeiting.[95] By 1962, Union Bank of Switzerland reached CHF 6.96 billion of assets, narrowly edging ahead of Swiss Bank Corporation to become the largest bank in Switzerland.[96] The rapid growth was punctuated by the 1967 acquisition of Interhandel, which made UBS one of the strongest banks in Europe.[85]

By the 1980s, Union Bank of Switzerland established a position as a leading European underwriter of Eurobonds.[72] Following two major acquisitions in 1986 (Phillips & Drew and Deutsche Länderbank), UBS made its first purchase in the United States in 1991 with Chase Investors Management Corporation, the asset management business of Chase Manhattan Bank.[46] At the time of the acquisition, the business managed in excess of US$30 billion in assets.[97] The bank's investments had been in the conservative asset management and life insurance businesses; further, 60% of the bank's profits came from its even more conservative Swiss banking operations.[98][99] In 1993, Credit Suisse outbid Union Bank of Switzerland for Switzerland's Swiss Volksbank, the fifth largest bank in Switzerland which had run into financial difficulties in the early 1990s.[96] The acquisition propelled Credit Suisse ahead of Union Bank of Switzerland as the largest bank in Switzerland for the first time. Prior to the merger with Swiss Bank Corporation, UBS purchased a group of smaller Swiss banks in 1994 including the Cantonal Bank of Appenzell-Ausserrhoden in 1996,[71] and in 1997 Schröder, Münchmeyer, Hengst & Co. from Lloyds Bank was acquired to improve access to the German investment banking and private wealth management markets.[100]

After the two banks merged, they became known solely as "UBS" while retaining the Swiss Bank Corporation's "three keys" icon.

During the mid-1990s, Union Bank of Switzerland came under fire from dissident shareholders critical of its conservative management and lower return on equity.[101] Martin Ebner, through his investment trust, BK Vision, became the largest shareholder in Union Bank of Switzerland and attempted to force a major restructuring of the bank's operations.[102] Looking to take advantage of the situation, Credit Suisse approached Union Bank of Switzerland about a merger that would have created the second largest bank in the world in 1996.[103] Union Bank of Switzerland's management and board unanimously rebuffed the proposed merger.[104] Ebner, who supported the idea of a merger, led a shareholder revolt that resulted in the replacement of Union Bank of Switzerland's chairman, Robert Studer with Mathis Cabiallavetta, one of the key architects of the merger with Swiss Bank Corporation.[72][105]

On 8 December 1997, Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation announced an all-stock merger. At the time of the merger, Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation were the second and third largest banks in Switzerland, respectively.[106] Discussions between the two banks had begun several months earlier, less than a year after rebuffing Credit Suisse's merger overtures.[107] The merger resulted in the creation of UBS AG, a new bank with total assets of more than US$590 billion, the largest of its kind.[108] During the merger, UBS chairman Marcel Ospel originally wanted to call the company "United Bank of Switzerland", but settled on simply using "UBS" following the acquisition of American brokerage firm, Paine Webber.[109]

Colloquially referred to as the "New UBS" to distinguish itself from the former Union Bank of Switzerland, the combined bank became the second largest in the world at the time, behind only the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.[108] Additionally, the merger pulled together the banks' various asset management businesses to create the world's largest money manager, with approximately US$910 billion in assets under management.[108] Union Bank of Switzerland's Mathis Cabiallavetta became chairman of the new bank while Swiss Bank's Marcel Ospel was named chief executive officer.[108] Nearly 80% of the top management positions were filled by legacy Swiss Bank professionals.[72] Prior to the merger, Swiss Bank Corporation was considered to be further along than Union Bank of Switzerland in developing its international investment banking business, particularly in the higher margin advisory businesses where Warburg Dillon Read was considered to be the more established platform.[110][111] Union Bank of Switzerland had a stronger retail and commercial banking business in Switzerland, while both banks had strong asset management capabilities.[108] After the merger was completed, it was speculated that a series of losses suffered by UBS on its equity derivative positions in late 1997 was a contributing factor in pushing UBS management to consummate the merger.[112][113]

UBS PaineWebber logo in use from 2001 until 2003 when the use of the Paine Webber brand was dropped

On 3 November 2000, UBS merged with Paine Webber, an American stock brokerage and asset management firm led by chairman and CEO Donald Marron.[114][115] At the time of its merger with UBS, Paine Webber had emerged as the fourth largest private client firm in the United States with 385 offices employing 8,554 brokers. The acquisition pushed UBS to the top wealth and asset management firm in the world. Initially, the business was given the divisional name UBS PaineWebber but in 2003 the 123-year-old name Paine Webber disappeared when it was renamed UBS Wealth Management USA.[116] UBS took a CHF 1 billion write-down for the loss of goodwill associated with the retirement of the Paine Webber brand when it integrated its brands under the unified UBS name in 2003.[46]

UBS Warburg was the brand used for the Investment Banking division of UBS from 1999 to 2003.

John P. Costas, a former bond trader and co-head of Fixed income at Credit Suisse First Boston and head of Fixed Income Trading at Union Bank of Switzerland in 1998, was appointed CEO of UBS's investment banking division, which originated in SBC's Warburg Dillon Read division and was renamed UBS Warburg in December 2001.[117][118] In an attempt to break into the elite bulge bracket of investment banks, in which UBS then had little success while rival Credit Suisse was establishing itself as a major player on Wall Street with the acquisition of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in 2000, Costas shifted the growth strategy from acquiring entire firms to hiring individual investment bankers or teams of bankers from rival firms.[119][120] Costas had followed a similar approach in building out the UBS fixed income business, hiring over 500 sales and trading personnel and increasing revenues from US$300 million in 1998 to over US$3 billion by 2001.

UBS Financial Services (left) in Frankfurt, 2012

The arrival of former Drexel Burnham Lambert investment banker Ken Moelis marked a major coup for Costas. Moelis joined UBS from Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette in 2001 shortly after its acquisition by Credit Suisse First Boston (although Huw Jenkins claimed he had hired Moelis to the UK Parliamentary Banking commission while under oath, which is patently false). In his six years at UBS, Moelis ultimately assumed the role of president of UBS Investment Bank and was credited, along with Costas, with the build-out of UBS's investment banking operation in the United States.[121] Within weeks of joining, Moelis brought over a team of 70 bankers from Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.[121] Costas and Moelis hired more than 30 senior U.S. bankers from 2001 through 2004.[117] It was estimated that UBS spent as much as US$600 million to US$700 million hiring top bankers in the U.S. during this three-year period.[122] Among the bank's other major recruits during this period were Olivier Sarkozy, Ben Lorello, Blair Effron, and Jeff McDermott.[123][124] By 2003, UBS had risen to fourth place from seventh in global investment banking fees, earning US$2.1 billion of the US$39 billion paid to investment banks that year, increasing 33%.[117] Over the next four years, UBS consistently ranked in the top 4 in the global fee pool and established a track record of 20 consecutive quarters of rising profits.[125] In 2006, UBS set up a joint venture in China namely UBS Securities. However, by the end of 2006, UBS began to experience changing fortunes. In late 2005, Costas headed a new hedge fund unit within UBS known as Dillon Read Capital Management. His former position was taken over by Huw Jenkins, a long-time legacy UBS investment banker.[126] In 2006, UBS bankers Blair Effron and Michael Martin announced their departures.[127][128] In March 2007, Moelis announced that he was leaving the company, and shortly thereafter founded a new business, Moelis & Company.[129] As he had when joining UBS, Moelis took a large team of senior UBS investment bankers.[130][131] Moelis's departure was caused primarily by repeated conflict over the availability of capital from the bank's balance sheet to pursue large transactions, particularly leveraged buyouts.[132] The bank's apparent conservatism would be turned on its head when large losses were reported in various mortgage securities rather than corporate loans that generated investment banking fees. After Moelis, other notable departures included investment banking co-head Jeff McDermott in early 2007 and, as the financial crisis set in, other high-profile bankers such as Oliver Sarkozy in early 2008 and Ben Lorello in 2009.[123][128]

UBS building on Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan

At the beginning of 2007, UBS became the first Wall Street firm to announce a heavy loss in the subprime mortgage sector as the subprime mortgage crisis began to develop.[133] In May 2007, UBS announced the closure of its Dillon Read Capital Management (DRCM) division.[134] Although in 2006, DCRM had generated a profit for the bank of US$720 million, after UBS took over DRCM's positions in May 2007, losses grew from the US$124 million recorded by DRCM, ultimately to "16% of the US$19 billion in losses UBS recorded." The UBS investment bank continued to expand subprime risk in the second quarter of 2007 while most market participants were reducing risk,[135] resulting in not only expanding DRCM losses but creating the 84% of the other losses experienced by the bank.[136]

In response to the growing series of problems at UBS, and possibly his role in spearheading Costas' departure from the bank, Peter Wuffli unexpectedly stepped down as CEO of the firm during the second quarter of 2007.[137][138] Wuffli would be joined by many of his fellow managers in the next year, most notably the bank's chairman Marcel Ospel. However, the bank's problems continued through the end of 2007,[139] when the bank reported its first quarterly loss in over five years.[140] As its losses jeopardized the bank's capital position, UBS quickly raised US$11.5 billion of capital in December 2007, US$9.7 billion of which came from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC)[141] and US$1.8 billion from an unnamed Middle Eastern investor.[142]

Protestors outside of UBS's Zürich headquarters, 2009

After a significant expansion of fixed income risk during 2006 and 2007 under the leadership of Huw Jenkins, the UBS Investment Bank CEO,[143] the bank's losses continued to mount in 2008 when UBS announced in April 2008 that it was writing down a further US$19 billion of investments in subprime and other mortgage assets.[144]

By this point, UBS's total losses in the mortgage market were in excess of US$37 billion, the largest such losses of any of its peers.[145] In response to its losses, UBS announced a CHF 15 billion rights offering to raise the additional funds need to shore up its depleted reserves of capital. UBS cut its dividend in order to protect its traditionally high Tier 1 capital ratio, seen by investors as a key to its credibility as the world's largest wealth management company.[146][147] In October 2008, UBS announced that it had placed CHF 6 billion of new capital, through mandatory convertible notes, with Swiss Confederation.[148] The Swiss National Bank and UBS made an agreement to transfer approximately US$60 billion of currently illiquid securities and various assets from UBS to a separate fund entity.[149][150] In November 2008, UBS put US$6 billion of equity into the new "bad bank" entity, keeping only an option to benefit if the value of its assets were to recover. Heralded as a "neat" package by The New York Times, the UBS structure guaranteed clarity for UBS investors by making an outright sale.[151] UBS announced in February 2009 that it had lost nearly CHF 20 billion (US$17.2 billion) in 2008, the biggest single-year loss of any company in Swiss history.[152] Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007, UBS has written down more than US$50 billion from subprime mortgage investments and cut more than 11,000 jobs.[153][154] By the spring of 2009, UBS announced another management restructuring and initiated a plan to return to profitability. Jerker Johansson, the head of the investment bank division, resigned in April 2009 and was replaced by Alex Wilmot-Sitwell and Carsten Kengeter.[155] At the same time, UBS announced the planned cut of 8,700 jobs[156] and had implemented a new compensation plan. Under the plan, no more than one-third of any cash bonus would be paid out in the year it is earned with the rest to be held in reserve and stock-based incentives that would vest after three years. In April 2009, UBS announced that it agreed to sell its Brazilian financial services business, UBS Pactual, for approximately US$2.5 billion to BTG Investments.[157]

UBS world headquarters in Zürich's Paradeplatz

The Swiss government sold its CHF 6 billion stake in UBS in late 2008 at a large profit; Switzerland had purchased convertible notes in 2008 to help UBS clear its balance sheets of toxic assets.[158] Taking advantage of improved conditions in the stock market in mid-2009, UBS placed US$3.5 billion of shares with a small number of large institutional investors.[159] Oswald Grübel announced, "We are building a new UBS, one that performs to the highest standards and behaves with integrity and honesty; one that distinguishes itself not only through the clarity and reliability of the advice and services it provides but in how it manages and executes."[160] Grübel reiterated plans to maintain an integrated business model of providing wealth management advisory, investment banking, and asset management services.[161]

In August 2010, UBS launched a new advertising campaign featuring the slogan: "We will not rest" and signed a global sponsorship agreement with Formula 1.[162][163] On 26 October 2010, UBS announced that its private bank recorded net new funds of CHF 900 million during the third quarter, compared to an outflow of CHF 5.5 billion in second quarter.[164] UBS's third quarter net profit of US$1.65 billion beat analyst estimates, continuing a string of profitability. After the elimination of almost 5,000 jobs, UBS announced on 23 August 2011 that it was further cutting another 3,500 positions in order to "improve operating efficiency" and save CHF 1.5 to CHF 2 billion a year. 45 percent of the job cuts would come from the investment banking unit, which continued to post dismal figures since the 2008 financial crisis, while the rest would come from the wealth management and asset management divisions. The firm has seen profits fall due to the rise of the Swiss franc.[165][166]

On 15 September 2011, UBS became aware of a massive loss, originally estimated at US$2 billion, allegedly due to unauthorized trading by Kweku Adoboli, a then 31-year-old Ghanaian trader on the Delta One desk of the firm's investment bank.[167] Adoboli was arrested and later charged with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting dating as far back as 2008. UBS's actual losses were subsequently confirmed as US$2.3 billion, and according to the prosecutor in Adoboli's trial he "was a gamble or two from destroying Switzerland's largest bank for his own benefit."[168][169] On 24 September 2011 UBS announced chief executive Oswald Grübel's resignation, and the appointment of Sergio Ermotti as his replacement on an interim basis.[170][171]

A UBS retail bank for private wealth management in St. Gallen, Switzerland

On 30 October 2012, UBS announced that it was cutting 10,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to slim down its investment banking operations, of which 2,500 would be in Switzerland, followed by the United States and Great Britain. This 15-percent staff cut would make overall staff count come down from 63,745 to 54,000. (For comparison, the peak employment level in 2007 before the 2008 financial crisis was 83,500).[172][173] UBS also announced that the investment bank would focus on its traditional strengths and exit much of its fixed income trading business that was not economically profitable. On 19 December 2012, UBS was fined $1.5 billion for its role in the Libor scandal[174] over accusations that it tried to rig benchmark interest rates.[175] In November 2014, regulators including the FCA and CFTC hit UBS with fines, along with other banks, for currency manipulation.[176] On 6 January 2014, it was reported that UBS had become the largest private banker in the world, with $1.7 trillion in assets.[177] In May 2015, media reports revealed UBS is planning to sell its Australian private banking division to some of its management after a review of underperforming businesses was conducted at the company.[178]

In late 2016, the bank created the digital currency "Utility Settlement Coin" (USC) to accelerate inter-bank settlements and established a blockchain technology research laboratory in London.[179][180] From 2012 to 2018, the investment bank, led by Andrea Orcel, initiated a major restructuring, firing over 10,000 employees and focusing on European underwriting business instead of traditional dealmaking.[181][182] UBS announced in January 2018 that it does not trade or expose clients to cryptocurrencies as it believes they have little to no elasticity, and are speculatively valued.[183] It partnered with technology company IBM to launch a blockchain trade finance platform called "Batavia" in early 2018.[184]

Chairman Marcel Ospel did not apply for re-election at the annual general meeting of shareholders held on 23 April 2008, and was succeeded by Peter Kurer, who was general counsel. On 15 April 2009, Peter Kurer was succeeded by Kaspar Villiger. Former Bundesbank president Axel A. Weber was nominated in mid-2011 for election to the board at the annual meeting 2012 and, at that time, intended to be elected as a chairman of the board after Villiger's retirement in 2013.[187][188] However, in May 2012, Villiger and board member Bruno Gehrig stepped down.[189]

With Oswald Grübel's resignation as CEO in 2011 and Sergio Ermotti's interim appointment on 24 September 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that the succession process appeared to be a two-person race between Ermotti from EMEA and Kengeter from the investment bank. Ermotti, who had spent many years at what is now Bank of America Merrill Lynch, had joined UBS in April from UniCredit Group; Kengeter was a German national who joined UBS from Goldman Sachs in 2008 and who had reportedly disagreed with some UBS investment bankers over pay and other matters, the journal also said.[191]

Previously, on 29 February 2009, Marcel Rohner had resigned and was succeeded by Grübel.[192] On 1 April 2009, Grübel hired Ulrich Körner in a newly established role as Chief operating officer (COO) and CEO of Corporate Center. Körner's task was to cut administrative expenses and boost profits.[193] After the last Annual General Meeting in May 2016, Robert W. Scully and Dieter Wemmer were elected as new members of the Board. It has been decided that Martin Blessing will assume the role as President Personal & Corporate Banking and President UBS Switzerland, replacing Lukas Gaehwiler, who himself will take the new role as Chairman of the Region Switzerland as of 1 September 2016.[194] The investment bank was led by Andrea Orcel from November 2014 to September 2018– eventually leaving to lead Banco Santander–before being replaced by Robert Karofsky and Piero Novelli.[195]

UBS announced that CEO Sergio Ermotti will step down in November 2020 to be replaced by Ralph Hamers, the current head of Dutch financial services group ING.[196]

1. Mathis Cabiallavetta (1998)
2. Alex Krauer (1998–2001)
3. Marcel Ospel (2001–2008)
4. Peter Kurer (2008–2009)
5. Kaspar Villiger (2009–2012)

1. Marcel Ospel (1998–2001)
2. Peter Wuffli (2001–2007)
3. Marcel Rohner (2007–2009)
4. Oswald Grübel (2009–2011)
5. Sergio Ermotti (2011–2020)

UBS Europe SE Headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

As disclosed under the Swiss Stock exchange Act, the most significant shareholders of UBS are GIC Private Limited with 7.07%, BlackRock Inc with 4.98%,[197] Norges Bank with 3.30%, MFS Investment Management with 3.05% and Capital Group Companies with 3.01% of total share capital.[198] In 2008 during the subprime mortgage crisis, GIC Private Limited invested CHF 11 billion into UBS to help bail it out, thus becoming the largest single shareholder.[28]

Additionally, the UBS Group AG disclosed shareholders registered in their share register with 3% or more of shares issued. As of 30 September 2017, these are Chase Nominees Ltd, DTC (Cede & Co.) and Nortrust Nominees Ltd with 10.32%, 6.63% and 4.04% of total share capital respectively.[199]

As of 30 June 2019, shareholdings of the Group were distributed as follows:[200]

UBS, along with other Swiss banks, maintains a variety hidden assets and numbered bank accounts in an effort to preserve anonymity and confidentiality.[208] Despite its name, hidden accounts are not truly hidden.[209] The usage of these types of accounts (and assets) limits the knowledge of the account between the client and a restricted number of private bankers who retain record of who the account belongs to.[209]

In January 1997, Christoph Meili, a night guard at the Union Bank of Switzerland (precursor of UBS) in Zürich, publicly announced that bank officials were destroying documents about orphaned assets, believed to be the credit balances of both Nazi German and Jewish clients attained during World War II.[201] Soon after, Zurich authorities opened a judicial investigation against Meili for suspected violations of the Swiss laws on banking secrecy.[210] After a US$2.56 billion lawsuit was filed against UBS and other Swiss banks on behalf of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, a settlement was reached that totalled US$1.25 billion in August 1998.[211][212]

An entrance to a UBS Wealth Management office in Milan, Italy. With a strike-plated door and frosted glass, its purpose is to provide security and banking discretion.

The Swiss government has taken steps to curb the usage of hidden services by foreign account holders as they have been frequently used to facilitate the transfer of "black money".[213] In May 2013, Switzerland announced that it would amend certain banking secrecy laws applicable to UBS Switzerland AG to allow the disclosure of hidden client accounts to various investigative authorities.[213] However, the disclosure of such information is heavily regulated and only "occur exclusively within the scope of administrative assistance procedures based on a valid double taxation agreement."[208]

UBS, along with other Swiss banks, owns and operates undisclosed or otherwise secretive bank vaults, storage facilities or underground bunkers for gold bars, diamonds, cash, or other valuable physical assets.[201][214] The geographical location of these facilities are undisclosed to the public but are known to be present in the mountainous regions of the Swiss Alps.[215] These facilities are not subject to the same banking regulations as banks in Switzerland and do not have to report holdings to regulatory agencies.[215][216] According to the Swiss Armed Forces, UBS purchased four former military bunkers to convert into storage facilities throughout the 1980s and 1990s.[201][217] Three of these bunkers are not accessible by road or foot and require aircraft transportation.[201] The transfer of assets to these bunkers is selective as a multi-stage security clearance is required and is not available to all UBS clients.[215] In special circumstances, UBS contracts smaller banks in Southern Switzerland to maintain company assets.[201]

The largest disclosed Swiss bank vault is five floors (19 metres or 62 feet) underground the bank's Geneva headquarters.[218] In July 2013, UBS established a gold storage facility and depository in Singapore for high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in their Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia markets who are willing to pay high fees and commissions for the highest level of secrecy and safety for their assets.[217]

The strict banking secrecy policies and bank-client confidentiality agreements at UBS have frequently been used to avoid, evade or otherwise escape foreign direct taxation. UBS reached multilateral agreements with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.K. HM Revenue and Customs in 2009 and 2010, respectively.[219] These agreements ensured a line of communication between the tax agencies and all registered Swiss banks.[220] The most commonly used stipulation triggered by select UBS Switzerland AG clients regard the following statute: Swiss banks are only allowed to disclose client information if a client is legally charged with proof of deliberate financial fraud, not merely the non-reporting of assets to avoid taxation.[208]

The banking privacy policies of UBS have led to numerous controversies and disagreements with foreign governments:

The French supreme court, Cour de Cassation, ruled against UBS in their 2014 appeal of tax evasion.

• In 2007, Bradley Birkenfeld, a Geneva-based employee who worked in the bank's North American wealth management business, claimed that UBS's dealings with American clients violated an agreement between the bank and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.[221] He subsequently complained to UBS compliance officials about the bank's "unfair and deceptive business practices", which included sponsoring events like yacht races and art festivals in the United States to attract wealthy people as potential clients.[222] UBS was charged by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and ordered it to cease providing cross-border private banking services to US-domiciled clients through its non-US regulated units as of July 2008.[223]
• In 2012, the German government saw to it that UBS Deutschland AG came under investigation by prosecutors in Mannheim, Germany, after a tax probe revealed suspicious funds transfers from Germany to Switzerland allegedly facilitated by the bank's Frankfurt office.[224] UBS Deutschland's Frankfurt office was raided by tax investigators in May 2012, and over 100,000 computer files and records were seized for evidence. The bank, which claims it is cooperating with the investigators, said that "an internal investigation into the specific allegations has not identified any evidence of misbehaviour by UBS Deutschland AG."[224]
• In 2014, the French government launched an investigation into UBS France's alleged abetting of tax evasion by French taxpayers.[225] The investigation estimated the amount of tax income lost to UBS-controlled offshore accounts at €600 billion.[226] In July 2014, the bank was required to post a bond of 1.1 billion euros, which UBS complied with while making multiple appeals in the French court system, finally losing its appeal at the Cour de Cassation, France's highest court.[227] That same year, UBS accused the French government of engaging in a "highly politicized process" in its investigation of the bank.[228]

UBS has been an early adopter regarding the use of blockchain technology in financial services. In April 2015, UBS opened an innovation lab at the Level39 technology accelerator space in London.[239]

In August 2016, UBS announced that it will team up with BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Banco Santander, brokerage company ICAP and the fintech company Clearmatics, to promote UBS's "Utility Settlement Coin" (USC). The USC is a blockchain-based digital currency that financial institutions could use to transact securities with each other, bypassing the traditional settlement processes which is ongoing.[240]

In 2018, UBS digitally cloned Daniel Kalt, one of its chief economists. Artificial intelligence expert FaceMe was hired to create an interactive avatar of Kalt that can meet with clients via television screen. The clients will be able to ask questions and receive answers, made possible by IBM's Watson AI technology.[241][242]

UBS is particularly active in sponsoring various golf tournaments, cross-country skiing in Switzerland, ice hockey, and a range of other events around the world. UBS was the sponsor of the Alinghi sailing ship, winner of the Americas Cup in 2003. UBS has been or currently is a sponsor of the following sporting events and organizations:

UBS's cultural sponsorships are typically related to classical music and contemporary art, although the company also sponsors a range of film festivals, music festivals, and other cultural events and organizations. UBS supported the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative in which the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation identified and worked with artists, curators and educators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa to expand their reach in the international art world and challenge the Western-centric view of art history.[265] UBS has previously been or currently is a sponsor of the following cultural events and organizations:

UBS currently holds the naming rights of the under construction UBS Arena which will be home to the New York Islanders.