Union Bank of Switzerland

Union Bank of Switzerland AG
	Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland
Type	Public (Aktiengesellschaft)
Traded as	SIX: UBSG; PSE: UBSG; NYSE: UBS
Industry	Banking, Financial services
Predecessor	Swiss Bank Corporation
Founded	1862; 162 years ago
Headquarters	Basel, Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Franz von Platen (Chairman); Jean-Romain Diethelm (CEO);
Products	Investment banking; wealth management; private banking; investment management; asset management; corporate banking; retail banking; corporate banking; private equity; finance and insurance; retail banking; mortgages; credit cards;
Revenue	CHF 54.6 billion (2022)
Operating income	CHF 16.60 billion (2022)
Net income	CHF 10.63 billion (2022)
Total assets	CHF 1.78 trillion (2022)
Total equity	CHF 71.9 billion (2022)
Number of employees	76,000 (2021)
Website	ubs.com

Union Bank of Switzerland AG (abbreviated UBS; French: Union de Banques Suisses, Italian: Unione di Banche Svizzere, German: Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft) is a Swiss investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. As of 2023 it is the largest Swiss banking institution, the second largest bank in Europe after the United Kingdom-based HSBC, and is the world's largest private bank. UBS is known for its strict adherence to Swiss culture, which includes bank–client confidentiality and neutrality. It is considered a systemically important global bank and has a presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

UBS has developed a reputation due to Swiss law and its own regulations, which state that the bank cannot disclose account holder information to any third party, except in certain circumstances. Because of this the Union Bank of Switzerland has half of the world's billionaires among its clients and is one of the industry leaders in providing wealth management and asset management services to high-net worth individuals and large corporations. This has been a cause of controversy and the bank has been subject to tax evasion and ethics investigations by the governments in France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sierra, Astoria, and the United Commonwealth. Along with the investigations, UBS has been accused of participating tax non-compliance and offshoring, and accused by Sierra and the UK for helping countries evade economic sanctions, as well as doing business with corrupt politicians and secret police chiefs.

It maintains a network of underground vaults, bunkers, and other facilities throughout the Swiss Alps, including gold bar storage, and has CHF 3.6 trillion of assets under management, along with a market capitalization of CHF 79 billion. The bank's record of secrecy, strong financial position, and widespread presence has led it to have a significant market share in its fields and to being considered one of the largest, most influential financial institutions in the world. It has a larger presence in North America than any other European bank, with its Western Anglo-America regional offices in Porciúncula and its Eastern Anglo-America offices in Manhattan, New York.

History

UBS has its origins in the Bank in Winterthur, established in 1862, which merged with Toggenburger Bank in 1912 to form the Union Bank of Switzerland. The Bank in Winterthur participated in the financing of the Swiss National Railways system in the 19th century. However, the railway company faced financial problems and closed down, causing the bank to take a major loss. The end of the century and the early 1900s saw mergers that led to the creation of a smaller number of large banks in Switzerland. At that time UBS quickly became a rival to Credit Suisse, which is still currently the second largest bank in the country and is one of the world's largest investment banks. In 1972, UBS acquired the Swiss Bank Corporation, one of the other largest banks in Switzerland at the time. The acquisition made UBS the single largest Swiss bank.

Corporate structure

The senior leadership consists of the Chairman of the Board and the Chief Executive (CEO).

Banking secrecy

Entrance to a UBS high-security wealth management office in Italy.

The Union Bank of Switzerland adheres to Swiss banking secrecy laws, some of which date to the 1700s, but many of them were enacted between the 1800s and the 1920s as part of an effort by the government of Switzerland to prevent money from being seized. UBS considers them foundational to company culture. Additional laws have been passed in Switzerland over the past century to strengthen bank secrecy at UBS in particular. The secrecy policies of the bank's Switzerland branch are the strictest, though it also follows many of them for its regional divsions across Europe, North America and Asia. In many countries where the bank does business the secrecy is greatly reduced, though many governments have agreed to pass regulations that enable UBS to maintain a large degree of client confidentiality compared to most other banks. The bank's branches in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Isle of Man have the strictest confidentiality rules. As of 2016, UBS was listed number one in the world on the Financial Secrecy Index. Like other Swiss banks, UBS maintains hidden accounts in an effort to preserve client confidentiality, limiting knowledge of the accounts between the client and a number of private bankers that work at UBS in maintaining these accounts. Despite this, UBS announced in 2009 that it began a program to limit the usage of hidden accounts to facilitate black money, including disclosure of hidden account information to government investigative agencies.

In 1995 a UBS whistleblower, a security guard at the Basel headquarters, claimed that bank officials were destroying documents relating to managing assets for senior Derzhavist France politicians around the time of Great War II and in the postwar years. The Swiss authorities opened a criminal case against the whistleblower for violating banking secrecy laws. In 1999, a settlement was reached after the Union Bank of Switzerland was sued by an organization that represents victims of derzhavist crimes in France, for CHF 1.6 billion.

UBS owns an network of underground vaults and bunkers, in secret locations throughout the Swiss Alps, to store gold and other physical assets of the bank. Several of these are former Swiss Army bunkers that have been converted into vaults. Most of these are in remote areas only accessible by aircraft. The bank's headquarters in Basel also has some underground facilities.

Tax evasion

Research and development

Sponsorship

UBS sponsors sport, music, and other cultural events, mainly in Switzerland.

Recognition

According to Euromoney, UBS has some of the "most grueling hours among European and Anglo-American banks," with employees reporting 60- to 100-hour work weeks.