The UBS boss adopts a paternalistic tone. He believes that even three years after the CS collapse, the emotions have not really subsided.
10. Februar 2026 • Beat Schmid
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti accuses Switzerland of overly emotional processing of the Credit Suisse bankruptcy. At an in-house financial conference in Key Biscayne, Florida, Ermotti said on Monday that the reactions after the collapse of CS in 2023 were strongly influenced by emotions. The regulatory proposals currently being discussed to prevent a similar crisis are not acceptable to UBS in this form.
“In the last two or three years, the emotions haven’t really subsided,” said Ermotti. From his point of view, it is all the more welcome that Parliament is now dealing with the issue more objectively. Ermotti expects clarity about future regulation in the next two to three months.
At the same time, he again rejected a move abroad. UBS wants to remain a global bank based in Switzerland. Relocating the headquarters abroad is not currently being discussed. “Redomicilation is definitely not an issue we are currently focusing on,” he said.
Lengthy restructuring of the US consulting business
A central topic at the conference was the compensation model in the US asset management business. UBS’s goal is to “create a good balance between what the shareholders earn and what the financial advisors earn,” said Ermotti. Against this background, the bank has adjusted the compensation model for large consulting teams in the USA.
Broker teams that have not expanded their business for a long time are particularly affected. Their income-related remuneration has been reduced. The cuts in the compensation plan for 2025 would primarily affect larger teams and consultants with an annual income of less than one million dollars. This did not make the bank popular with many brokers. The bank consciously accepted that it would lose popularity in the short term in order to improve structural profitability, he said.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, customers withdrew a net $14.1 billion from US asset management, after $8.6 billion in the previous quarter. This resulted in negative net new money for the year as a whole. “We sacrificed new money in favor of the quality of growth,” said Ermotti, referring to the compensation cuts.
At the same time, the profit margin in the Americas Wealth business improved to 13 percent. This corresponds to an increase of almost two percentage points compared to the previous year, but is still below the target of 18 percent by 2028. The outflows in the US wealth business were poorly received by the market. The UBS share price has lost around 10 percent in the last five days.
date: 2026-02-10 07:04:00