Considering the current situation in the industry, it is necessary to highlight the position of the organization and important events. Swiss bank UBS belongs to the 28 largest banks, which, according to the Financial Stability Board (FSB) definition, fall into the category of systemically important financial institutions (Financial Stability Board, 2021). In this regard, it is subject to a particular control regime and must meet stricter criteria for equity. As of 2021, the largest Swiss bank is represented in 56 countries and all important financial centers with 893 branches (UBS Global, 2022). The size of the operating capital at the end of 2021 amounted to 9,48 billion dollars (Business Wire, 2022). With such an indicator, UBS, according to its data, is the leader in asset management with the most considerable growth rate in the world.
As for the state of the financial industry today, data and technology accelerated the emergence of new capital-light services. And this is evident in the industry’s structure, whereby over a third of the top 50 financial institutions are now data and technology companies. Apart from this, in early December 2021, the European Commission fined UBS, Barclays, RBS, HSBC, and Credit Suisse 344 million euros for participating in a Forex spot trading market cartel (Podesta, 2021). The offices of UBS Group AG in Frankfurt and Munich are being searched by the German prosecutor’s office (Miller et al., 2021). Thus, the highlighted aspects reflect the current situation in the industry.
References
Business Wire. (2022). UBS: 3Q22 net profit of USD 1.7bn, 15.5% return on CET1 capital and 14.4% CET1 capital ratio (ad hoc announcement pursuant to article 53 of the SIX exchange regulation listing rules). Web.
Financial Stability Board. (2021). 2021 list of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs). Web.
Miller, H., Matussek, K., & Balezou, M. (2021). UBS German offices searched by prosecutors on Usmanov links. Bloomberg. Web.
Podesta, A. (2021). Antitrust: Commission fines UBS, Barclays, RBS, HSBC and Credit Suisse € 344 million for participating in a foreign exchange spot trading cartel. European Commisssion. Web.
UBS Global. (2022). Locations. Our Firm. Web.