Recent reports by UBS and consultancy Bain set out to explain who China’s high net-worth individuals are, what kind of private banking services they want and how local and global lenders can best serve them.

Less charismatic chief executives will serve Europe’s banks well in the 2020s – unless it simply means that more power will reside with their chairmen.

UBS has applied to buy out two minority investors in its China joint venture, boosting its stake in Beijing-based UBS Securities to 67%. The bank’s strong and long-standing relationship with the owner of the other 33%, a division of Beijing local government, is a timely reminder that there is no one right model for success in China.

Rob Karofsky will become sole president of the investment bank at UBS, ending his ‘odd couple’ partnership with co-president Piero Novelli.

Must all former chief executives eventually form a special purpose acquisition company?

UBS’s wealth management team had another stellar year despite the Covid crisis – and once again the Swiss lender takes the top spot in Euromoney’s private banking survey.

Once a branch line of the banking industry, private banking and wealth management is now a driver in its own right. It offers a powerful way to grow income, valuations and returns. But the pressure is on as banks need to scale up or sell out.

Despite Covid, it was a good year for UBS and its outgoing chief executive Sergio Ermotti. Now it’s time for his successor Ralph Hamers to show his hand.

UBS’s strategy of creating emerging markets growth through partnerships is writ large in its joint venture with Banco do Brasil. Can the new entity become more than the sum of its parts?

It is the time of year when global banks publish their wealth reports. This year they make for compelling reading. Euromoney takes the best of these reports and examines the outlook for 2021.

Ralph Hamers’ project to centralize ING’s operations was flawed from the outset. Scrapping it is sensible, but a mark against his legacy.

The outgoing CEO’s surprisingly good final results mean his successor has less room for manoeuvre.

New Barclays-backed venture staffed by veterans of the Swiss firm.

Environmental, social and governance factors are financially material and the time for debate is over – unless you’re Trump.

The chairman of UBS seems determined to force a wave of European banking consolidation. A merger of his firm with Credit Suisse may not be possible, but other deals are likely.

The Swiss bank stands apart from its peers. It helped its clients profit, both in the serene waters of 2019 and in the wake left by Covid-19 as it spread across the world in 2020

The greatest wealth transfer in history is taking place, as baby boomers pass the mantle – and their money – to a lucky few millennials, but the process is strewn with obstacles. Inheriting a lot of money is one thing, knowing what to do with it quite another. This is where good relationship managers come in.

A bold move by New Zealand’s Jarden to hire some of the finest talent in Australian investment banking and go it alone feeds the sense of a changing competitive landscape.

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Rajhi is named the region's best bank in this year’s Euromoney Awards for Excellence.

The US’s PNC Financial Services and Royal Bank of Canada win the best bank accolades in their respective countries in this year’s Euromoney Awards for Excellence.

Crédit Agricole takes the lead in Western Europe in this year's Euromoney Awards for Excellence.

“During the first quarter our assets increased by 15% due to net new money, transaction revenues are up year over year 55%, our lending share has grown 25% compared to a year ago and our costs are down 1%,” says Ali Janoudi, head of Middle East and Africa for wealth management at UBS.

“I think this crisis has shown why being with a firm focused on wealth management as a primary business and having a global perspective matters to clients,” says Tom Naratil, co-chief executive of UBS global wealth management (GWM) and president of UBS Americas.

After much restructuring in 2019 that saw the de-layering of management, regionalization of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and streamlining of client segments, it wasn’t clear what the beginning of 2020 might look like for UBS in Western Europe.

Just like the global financial crisis, Australia is emerging from Covid-19 more strongly than the rest of the developed world. Investment banks here have never been busier, raising huge sums of equity from one of the world’s largest asset pools. In the first of a two-part series on Australian investment banking, we look at the work that came out of a global pandemic.

Everyone is hungry for data to help navigate the coronavirus crisis, but thorny questions remain about consent and privacy.

Banks have been trying to rebuild trust since the global financial crisis. They have touted corporate responsibility and stakeholder capitalism as core tenets of their businesses. Covid-19 and the subsequent economic crisis will be a big test of their commitment.

Global banks are finally getting full access to China’s capital markets. Regulators will let them own joint ventures outright as they roll out a host of services from forex to advisory to wealth management. For Beijing it’s a final frontier – and there’s no going back.

Sell-side research is integrating alternative data to navigate the current coronavirus crisis. It’s the future for bank research, but it’s not an easy transition.

The former UBS private banking chief leaves an impressive legacy across the wealth management industry.