Swiss regulators would love the landlocked nation’s crown jewel bank, UBS, to ditch its US subsidiary – and Wall Street tongues are wagging that it finally could occur, On The Money has realized.
It’s not the first time hypothesis has swirled that UBS Americas — which combines a middling investment bank with a sturdy high-net price brokerage operation — could be a takeover candidate. Wall Street wealth management heavyweights such as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch would love to get their palms on its 6,000 brokers who handle something like $2.4 trillion in belongings.
It also isn’t the first time that UBS has been rumored to do something transformational. As On The Money reported back in November of last 12 months, UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher and CEO Sergio Ermotti have been chafing over new guidelines from Swiss regulators that would pressure them to maintain an further $16 billion in capital.
Swiss regulators would love the landlocked nation’s crown jewel bank, UBS, to ditch its US subsidiary – and Wall Street tongues are wagging that it finally could occur Jack Forbes / NY Post Design
They are said to have thought of transferring the 164-year-old bank to the US, with executives assembly with the Trump administration about it. Another option is shopping for a US bank so they can change nations via an acquisition.
Both would be tough for a lot of causes including the truth that UBS is the largest in Switzerland and it is identified as its high-end non-public banking clientele that the Swiss authorities — which guidelines its banks with an iron fist — in all probability doesn’t need to be managed out of New York.
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A more elegant answer would be for the Swiss to keep their in-country non-public bank and spin off of the US operations, which I am advised by my sources inside the bank, is something that the Swiss authorities banking regulators would love. The purpose: The Swiss are control freaks and hate risk and they see US banks as being powder kegs of risk ever since the 2008 financial disaster.
“They would love to get rid of us,” said one senior UBS America’s worker who requested not to be named. “The Swiss see us as a big basket of risk and would be thrilled if we could find a buyer.”
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has been chafing over new guidelines from Swiss regulators that would pressure the bank to maintain an further $16 billion in capital. REUTERS
UBS sale rumors are nothing new. In truth the entire dialog started in 2023, when the Swiss authorities all but compelled it to take over its troubled rival Credit Suisse over losses that were tied to what regulators would think about dangerous investment banking actions as opposed to more staid and steady non-public banking.
What adopted was enhanced capital necessities, a means of neutering capital markets risk-taking by bankers and, in idea, stopping another potential Credit Suisse state of affairs. Since then UBS has been making an attempt to persuade the nation’s regulators to lay off, but it seems the Swiss are now going to press forward with the capital guidelines that will make it unattainable to compete with less regulated US brokerages.
The irony, of course, is that UBS Americas is best identified for its brokerage business aka “wealth management,” which is perhaps the most staid and steady banking line. US brokerages operate largely on a fee-based foundation; the outdated stock broker model of churning shopper accounts through heavy trading has been changed by charges on belongings under management from wealthy people that brokers invest in varied merchandise.
If UBS did indeed spin off its Americas unit there would be consumers. It’s unclear if Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick is prepared for a main acquisition that would price close to $150 billion. REUTERS
That’s why if UBS did indeed spin off its Americas unit there would be consumers. One identify that has been whispered inside the firm, On The Money has realized, has just lately been Morgan Stanley, already among the nation’s high brokerage 16,000 financial advisers.
It’s unclear if CEO Ted Pick is prepared for a main acquisition that would price close to $150 billion. That said, there would be large price cutting of back workplace and other support employees, which could make the numbers work, and it’s exhausting to see the Trump administration with its free market method to mergers placing up much of an antitrust stink. Since these are Wall Street companies as opposed to banks, you don’t have to fear about guidelines that cap the measurement of deposits at any one establishment.
A rep for UBS said: “We don’t comment on speculation or views expressed on such matters.” I am advised Ermotti has said in the previous that “shrinking is not an option.”
Reps for Morgan Stanley had no quick remark.
