UBS boss Ermotti sees major progress in CS integration
Published: Wednesday, Apr 24th 2024, 10:50
Back to Live Feed
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti already sees "a lot of progress" in the integration of Credit Suisse into UBS. However, significant restructuring measures and optimizations are still needed before the big bank can take full advantage of the merger, Ermotti said on Wednesday at the Annual General Meeting in Basel.
The integration is "a marathon, not a sprint", emphasized the UBS CEO. The year 2024 will be a decisive year for the big bank. The most important priorities for the first half of 2024 include the merger of the two parent banks and the transfer of the US business to a single intermediate holding company. "The merger of our Swiss banks should take place before the end of the third quarter," said Ermotti.
According to the UBS CEO, the necessary efficiency gains in terms of costs, capital and financing could only be realized after the merger of these companies. From the second half of 2024, UBS will then be able to gradually decommission the old Credit Suisse platforms. "This process will continue until 2025 before we approach the target state in 2026."
In his speech, the UBS CEO criticized the argument that UBS has an implicit state guarantee as "factually incorrect". He referred to UBS's loss-absorbing capital totaling around 200 billion dollars. "The risks of UBS are borne by the shareholders and by the holders of AT1 instruments and loss-absorbing TLAC bonds - not by the taxpayer."
For UBS, this also means that the financing costs are structurally significantly higher than for banks with a state guarantee, he emphasized. The ratings that UBS receives from rating agencies are also lower than those of banks that enjoy an implicit or explicit state guarantee.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic