A bank does not grab the largest market share in forex by luck. So when the 2003 Euromoney forex poll showed UBS to be the biggest dealer, it was a reflection of its top-notch services and strategy.
UBS emerged as only the second bank ever in the poll's 25-year history to knock Citigroup off the top of the market share rankings.
Some of the reasons for this success are well known. UBS makes good use of technology, internally for trade processing and externally for deal execution by clients. It has also done a superb job attracting volumes from smaller banks - nearly 20% of the total turnover according to Euromoney figures.
But in a sense, that is just the start. As any other big forex bank will testify, strategy and technology are nothing without good liquidity and good service for all client groups. UBS's forex business is not, as some rivals might argue, a glorified electronic trading system.
"A lot of people believe we have built a separate eFX business, but we haven't," says Fabian Shey, who is jointly responsible for UBS's global forex services alongside Martin Wiedmann. "We have woven electronic distribution into the fabric of our business, and totally re-engineered the way we cover clients."