Credit Suisse Group AG is planning to cut more than 10 percent of its European investment bankers this year, adding to hundreds of job losses in London and Zurich, the Financial Times newspaper reported, citing people with knowledge of the plans.
The Swiss lender has been reducing headcount across its divisions after announcing plans to reduce 9,000 roles globally by 2025 last year. The further cuts come after the crisis-hit bank gears up to announce its second consecutive annual loss next month.
A wave of job cuts have hit the investment banking world with a recession looming and after revenues plummeted. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Barclays PLC have all either fired staff or announced they plan to do so in the coming months.
Photo: REUTERS
UBS Group AG does not plan acquisitions in the US “in the foreseeable future,” and has no intention to buy Credit Suisse, UBS chairman Colm Kelleher told Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
UBS has not yet realized its full potential in the US, Kelleher said in an interview published on Saturday.
“We need to get our wealth management business up and running and improve our margins there,” he said.
The Swiss lender’s US strategy has been in flux since former UBS Americas president Tom Naratil retired, leaving Iqbal Khan as the sole head of the global wealth management business.
The bank also backed away from acquiring robo-adviser Wealthfront, a deal that was meant to widen its reach to the lower rungs of the wealthy. Instead, UBS has retrenched, saying it would focus on its traditional very high net worth customer base.
The bank plans to offer more traditional banking services to its wealthy US clients, such as mortgages and loans.
Kelleher said he sees “low-hanging fruit” in boosting profitability in the US.
“We will not expand the investment bank,” he said, adding that the unit can build on good equities trading, but needs to improve its advisory business.
UBS is seeking more US institutional investors to buy the bank’s shares, Kelleher said.
To this end, the bank wants to get US analysts “to take a closer look at us,” and is considering reporting the performance of its US businesses separately, including profit levels and assets under management.
There is no reason for UBS to trade at a discount compared with US banks such as Morgan Stanley, Kelleher said.
“I would never have accepted the position of chairman if I didn’t believe that a higher valuation could be achieved and that this was a realistic goal,” he said.
The chairman, alongside UBS chief executive officer Ralph Hamers, has been spending more time with institutional investors in the US, but Kelleher said the bank’s messaging about its goals and strategy could be more “straightforward.”
In China, UBS expects a boost in its China business in the second half of the year, as the country moves away from its “zero COVID-19” policy and reopens the economy, Kelleher said.
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