Global firm's wealth management unit was among its star performers
Global banking group UBS has beaten earnings expectations and beaten the record for quarterly profit in the banking sector.
The Swiss-headquartered firm posted its results in the early hours of Thursday morning revealing net profit of $29 billion for the second quarter of 2023, its first quarterly results since its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse. Underlying profit for the firm was $1.1 billion.
While the net profit included $29 billion of negative goodwill from the Credit Suisse acquisition, the profit surge was attributed to the difference between the $3.8 billion that UBS paid for its failing rival and the value of the acquired firm’s balance sheet.
The modern record for US and European lenders’ profit was previously held by JPMorgan Chase & Co which reported $14.3 billion in the first quarter of 2021.
Among the bright spots in the results was UBS Global Wealth Management which recorded its highest second-quarter net new money in over a decade at $16 billion with momentum carrying over into the third quarter.
UBS shares in Zurich were trading at their highest since 2008 in early trade.
The firm also reported that the Credit Suisse franchise was now broadly stabilized with net deposit inflows of $18 billion.
“Two and a half months since closing the Credit Suisse acquisition, we are wasting no time in delivering value for all our stakeholders from one of the biggest and most complex bank mergers in history. We are winning back the trust of clients, reducing costs and taking the necessary actions to create economies of scale that will allow us to better focus our resources and target investments for future growth,” said Sergio P. Ermotti, UBS Group CEO.
Layoffs and Integration
UBS says that the integration of the two banks will be done in stages, beginning with the planned legal merger in 2024 with the Credit Suisse brand continuing until sometime in 2025 when all its clients will have been moved across to UBS systems.
However, this will come with some pain. Reuters reported Thursday that there will be a total of 3,000 job losses with 1,000 redundancies resulting from the integration and another 2,000 from restructuring.
The group is aiming to save $10 billion in costs by the end of 2026 with most of these savings coming from reduced headcount.
“Our decision on Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG follows a thorough evaluation of all available options. Our analysis clearly shows that full integration is the best outcome for UBS, our stakeholders, and the Swiss economy,” said Ermotti.
A separate filing showed that Credit Suisse lost a net 9.3 billion Swiss francs in the second quarter with net outflows of more than 39 billion and AUM falling 3%.
