UBS’s wealth-management business had already seen enviable performance over the 10 years since it set itself the ambition of being the world’s leading global wealth manager in 2012. But, with the acquisition of Credit Suisse, the last 12 months have seen it take another step forward.
The bank likes to describe itself as the only truly global wealth manager and boasts that building a similar franchise elsewhere would likely be impossible now.
For the wealth-management unit, the Credit Suisse impact in terms of scale was most evident in the regions outside the US – with invested assets rising some 50% in Asia, Europe and Switzerland. But the increased heft the acquisition also brings to UBS’s investment bank and asset-management business are still set to bring benefits to the US wealth-management franchise.
That is important, since North America – and the US in particular – is a critical part of UBS’s ambitious plans to continue to build the wealth-management business, which it wants to break through $5 trillion of invested assets by 2028.
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