UBS Switzerland boss expects around 190 branches by 2026
Published: Wednesday, Sep 11th 2024, 10:00
Updated At: Thursday, Sep 12th 2024, 01:59
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UBS Switzerland boss Sabine Keller-Busse expects to have around 190 branches at the end of the Credit Suisse integration. Following the takeover of Credit Suisse, the bank must get a grip on costs in the local business.
As early as the first quarter of 2025, 85 "duplicate" branches are to be merged, as Sabine Keller-Busse, Head of Switzerland at the big bank, said on Wednesday at an annual UBS investor conference. The "better" location will always be selected. By 2026, around 190 branches will remain.
That would be roughly as many as UBS already had without Credit Suisse. According to the latest figures, Credit Suisse still has around 95 branches in Switzerland.
In order to return to the usual level of profitability following the takeover of CS, Keller-Busse is focusing on the "right" level of costs as well as growth in strategic business areas and optimizing the balance sheet, she continued. The medium-term goal is to achieve an adjusted return on attributed equity in the Personal & Corporate Banking division - as UBS calls its Swiss business - of around 19 percent.
In the first half of 2024, this was 14.7 percent. Before the takeover of CS in 2022, UBS had a figure of 19.5 percent.
Costs have skyrocketed as a result of the CS integration: Operating expenses in Keller-Busse's business rose by around half to CHF 1.27 billion in the second quarter. The important cost/income ratio - how efficiently a bank operates - increased massively to 61.4 percent from 51.6 percent in the same quarter of the previous year. Credit Suisse is only included for one month in the second quarter of 2023 as it was acquired in June.
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