Reuters (December 29)
“Big bank mergers are no longer taboo. Ever since the 2008 crisis bosses have considered consolidation between large lenders unworkable, while regulators deemed it undesirable. UBS (UBSG.S) Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti may change that if he safely and profitably absorbs local rival Credit Suisse.”
Tags: 2008 crisis, Big bank, Consolidation, Credit Suisse, Ermotti, Lenders, Mergers, Profitably, Regulators, Taboo, UBS, Undesirable, Unworkable
BBC (April 24)
In the bank’s final quarterly results, Credit Swiss disclosed that nearly $69 billion was withdrawn by depositors during the first three months of 2023. Coming on the heels of a gaping loss in 2022 and forecast loss for 2023, the deposit withdrawal was part of the impetus behind “its forced sale to rival Swiss bank UBS.” The sale has “has angered taxpayers and shareholders of both banks, who were deprived of a vote on the takeover. Some have also argued it has damaged Switzerland’s global reputation as a financial centre.”
Tags: 2023, Banks, Credit Swiss, Damaged, Deposit, Depositors, Forecast, Loss, Quarterly results, Reputation, Shareholders, Switzerland, Takeover, Taxpayers, UBS, Withdrawn
Financial Times (July 28)
“More than 420,000 auto jobs in Germany could be imperilled by a 2030 ban on combustion engine cars” that’s currently under debate. “The beguilingly deceptive electric car… might look like any other car from the outside but inside, it is more like a computer on wheels.” For example, UBS analysts discovered a Chevy Bolt “had just 24 moving parts compared with 149 in a VW Golf, mainly because electric motors are so much simpler than combustion engines.” Moreover, it was much cheaper to produce than expected, leading to their conclusion that “with further cost falls likely, electric cars would probably disrupt the industry faster than widely understood.
Tags: Auto jobs, Ban, Bolt, Combustion engine, Disruption, Electric cars, Germany, Golf, Imperilled, Moving parts, UBS
Institutional Investor (February Issue)
“Over the past five years, as Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland in the U.K., UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland and even Deutsche Bank have pared back their investment banking activities, U.S. banks have powered ahead in the European arena in just about every sector, including the all-important FICC and M&A advisory categories.”
Tags: Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, FICC, Investment banking, M&A, RBS, Switzerland, U.K., U.S. Europe, UBS
Euromoney (July Issue)
UBS was named “Bank of the Year” by Euromoney. “Less than three years ago, UBS was written off as one of the ultimate victims of the financial crisis. The bold decisions taken then by a new chief executive and his management team make it today a bank that others seek to emulate.”
Tags: Bank, Bold decisions, Chief executive, Euromoney, Financial Crisis, Management team, UBS, Victim
Institutional Investor (April 24)
To strengthen their balance sheets, large banks (including Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays) have been reducing their commodities businesses, mainly through sales to independent trading companies. With these sales “to smaller players, conflicts of interest remain a potential problem” and nobody’s sure whether new problems will accompany this major shift. Given the skinnier balance sheets of the new players, market liquidity could conceivably suffer. In addition, “concerns abound that the underlying problems that have traditionally beset the commodities markets are simply being pushed onto a new and less tightly regulated set of actors.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Banks, Barclays, Commodities, Conflicts of interest, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Liquidity, Morgan Stanley, Regulated, Royal Bank of Scotland, Shift, Trading, UBS
Financial Times (December 19)
“The conspiracy to fix Libor appears more extensive than had been previously thought. This was not just a question of massaging submissions to make UBS’s financial position look stronger than it was after the crisis. The settlement also points to a co-ordinated effort across banks to manipulate market rates for profit.” Collusion and anti-trust charges may lead to class-action suits. Libor may become “the banks’ ‘tobacco moment’, when long-running bad behaviour is finally rumbled and the lawsuits roll in.”
Tags: Anti-trust, Banks, Class-action, Collusion, LIBOR, Tobacco, UBS
Institutional Investor (August Issue)
“Morgan Stanley and other banks get serious about sustainable investment.” In April, Morgan Stanley launched an Investing with Impact Platform, which will group sustainable investments (currently some 70 different products) around four categories. UBS is pushing its “analysts to integrate sustainability factors into their company and sector coverage” and now requires “all analysts to include a section on ‘sustainable innovation’ in their annual sector outlook reports.” In addition, Royal Bank of Canada seeded an impact investing fund which it may open to investors next year.
Institutional Investor (April)
Over 1,000 investment professionals were surveyed to select Institutional Investor’s 2011 All-Japan Research Team, the 18th annual. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research shared the top spot with Nomura. Both firms captured 24 positions on the all star team. UBS (18 positions), Daiwa Securities Group (15 positions) and Citi (13 positions) rounded out the top 5.
Over 1,000 investment professionals were surveyed to select Institutional Investor’s 2011 All-Japan Research Team, the 18th annual. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research shared the top spot with Nomura. Both firms captured 24 positions on the all star team. UBS (18 positions), Daiwa Securities Group (15 positions) and Citi (13 positions) rounded out the top 5.
