Australia

Not just revenues but also returns are behind the success this year of UBS, western Europe’s best investment bank. The Swiss firm stands out for a distribution and advisory-led business that has attracted fewer of the kind of questions over its sustainability that others have had to endure.More activity in the primary equity markets in western Europe, particularly in Switzerland, played to UBS’s strengths. Its equity capital markets revenues rose by 56% to SFr1 billion ($1.01 billion) in 2017 and were again up in the first quarter of 2018. It was global coordinator on the SFr2.4 billion IPO of electricity meter firm Landis+Gyr, a SFr2.3 billion rights issue for Lonza and on Galenica Santé’s SFr1.9 billion IPO. It was also global coordinator on Santander’s €7.1 billion rights issue.

The bank has integrated its North America and global operations to bring more focus – and better results.

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UBS Wealth Management voted best global private bank; private banks more bullish on revenues; hiring to increase.

…and how wealth management can have a brighter future.

While other parts of finance splinter and specialize, in wealth management it looks like bigger really does mean better: UBS wins Euromoney’s Private Banking 2018 survey yet again and the big global franchises continue to take the lion’s share of the industry.

Banks are booking big charges in the fourth quarter, but the domestic names are sitting pretty for the future as US taxes fall.

Earnings were positive in 2017, but it's a shame about the share price

Jürg Zeltner inspired UBS to regain its position as the world’s best private bank, and his departure has shocked many in the industry – what will he do next?

Banks’ third-quarter results show fixed income trading still depressed and CIB revenues mostly down, but UBS is looking remarkably perky, especially in equity capital markets. What’s up?

The more mainstream banks pour scorn on cryptocurrency, the greater their investing clients’ interest in new investment products for taking exposure in regulated markets.

A focus on clients with a strong connection to Switzerland allows the bank to forge particularly close relationships and deliver a quality service.

UBS Americas head says cost of hiring too expensive; fees and salaries based around AuM rather than product.

Euromoney has never before given an award in Afghanistan, but the story of Azizi Bank is compelling. Formed by an ethnic business group in 2006 and owned by Dubai’s Azizi Group, it took over the Development Bank of Afghanistan from the central bank in 2009, then India’s Punjab National Bank in 2014. It is Afghanistan’s largest commercial bank, with more than 140 branches and a million customers, and employs 2,300 people, 17% of them women, which does not sound a lot but matters in Afghanistan.

European wealth managers are battling it out in Asia but North America is where private banking revenues are.

Cheap financing helped big M&A deals continue to proliferate in Europe over the period of these awards. Western Europe’s best bank for advisory, UBS, has experience of the pinnacle of the trend for Chinese M&A in Europe, acting on the Swiss side of ChemChina’s $50 billion takeover of Syngenta, which was reaching closure at the end of the awards period. The bank’s work also included a defence against a less attractive offer by Monsanto.

Austria’s best bank notched its best result to date last year on the back of a recovery in its emerging Europe operations. But while the group’s international network tended to grab the headlines, the domestic business also put in another strong showing.

It has not been easy for those without a retail presence to win the affections of America’s wealthy, but UBS – Euromoney’s best bank for wealth management in North America – seems to have done just that. UBS Wealth Management Americas (WMA) this year had its most profitable first quarter in the history of the firm, following record third and fourth quarters in 2016.

Swiss bank buys Brazil’s biggest multi-family office; wealth management industry continues to grow fast despite economic turbulence.

Charting the evolution of the FX industry.

The top firms this year look like they haven’t moved in 18 years. How can nearly two decades of upheaval appear to have altered the rankings so little in Euromoney’s foreign exchange survey?

Overall market share Overall banks only Overall non-bank liquidity providers only Spot/forward market share Swap market share Options market share Emerging market currencies market share

Euromoney magazine has released the results of its 39th annual foreign exchange ranking, the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative annual study available on the FX markets.

Cost of equity (COE) dips under return on equity (ROE) as outperformance forecast; long decline in ROE since 2007 seen to have ‘bottomed-out’.

Americas wealth management division partners with specialist investment fund to back tech companies with women at the helm.

With humanity’s challenges seemingly more urgent than ever, the world’s wealthiest are trading cheque-book giving for greater engagement. Not only should the world benefit, but so too those banks that help them with their goals. What role can the world’s leading private banks play?

The hoped-for flows onshore from last year’s amnesty on offshore wealth have failed to materialise, so far. Meanwhile, Citi and HSBC have sold up. So where did a 15% increase in assets under management come from?