General view of the UBS building in Manhattan, New York City, on June 5, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | View Press | Corbis News | Getty Images
Swiss banking giant UBS on Wednesday smashed net profit expectations for the second quarter, as revenue swelled at its global wealth management and investment bank units.
Net profit attributable to shareholders came in at $1.136 billion for the period, versus a company-compiled consensus forecast of $528 million.
Profit was nonetheless lower than the $1.755 reported in the first quarter, as expected by analysts.
Group revenue also beat forecasts in the second quarter, coming in at $11.904 billion versus an LSEG-compiled poll of $11.522 billion.
UBS said strong capital markets activity had partially offset a drag from net interest income, which it had previously flagged would be weaker due to lower lending and deposit volumes and lower Swiss interest rates.
In the bank’s global wealth management unit, revenue increased by 15% to $6.053 billion, which UBS said was largely due to the consolidation of Credit Suisse. Revenue in the investment bank unit leapt 38% to $2.803 billion.
In its outlook, UBS said the macroeconomic outlook “continues to be clouded by ongoing conflicts, other geopolitical tensions and the upcoming US elections.”
It added: “We expect these uncertainties to persist for the foreseeable future, and they will likely lead to higher market volatility compared with the first half of the year.”
UBS had swung back to profit in the first quarter after two quarterly losses, but it warned that its net interest income would fall in both its global wealth management and its personal and corporate banking divisions.
It has now been over a year since UBS formally took over Credit Suisse, triggering a huge integration process and creating a wealth management juggernaut. UBS said at the start of July the merger process had completed and that Credit Suisse — the Swiss bank which spectacularly collapsed in March 2023 after years of financial scandals — no longer existed as a separate entity.
The bank said it now expects to end 2024 with cumulative gross savings from the Credit Suisse deal of $7 billion, out of a target of $13 billion by 2026 compared with a 2022 baseline. It had previously aimed to deliver $6.5 billion in savings by the end of the year.
UBS has cut jobs and risk-weighted assets as part of the merger process. It said Wednesday it now expects $7 billion in cost savings by the end of 2024, after previously targeting around $6.5 billion over the period.
