Coinciding with the presentation of results, the banking giant UBS has announced that it will cut 3,000 jobs in Switzerland due to the integration of the Swiss subsidiary of Credit Suisse, which will disappear as a brand in 2025. The Swiss bank, which shot profits in the second quarter of the year due to the acquisition of its rival, it has specified that it will cut a thousand jobs in the short term and another 2,000 in the coming years.
The group’s CEO, Sergio Ermotti, has explained that many of these jobs will begin to be eliminated at the end of next year through early retirement, reclassifications and other formulas that avoid layoffs. The decision is part of the entity’s objective of reducing costs worth 9.1 billion until the integration is completed at the end of 2026. The figure is 1.8 billion higher than that announced in March, shortly after the acquisition of its rival.
The Swiss branch of Credit Suisse is the one that best resisted in 2022 when the bank suffered massive withdrawals of capital. Its turnover only fell 5%, while the declines in the investment banking and wealth management divisions were 54% and 30%, respectively.
In March, under pressure from the Swiss authorities, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for just 3 billion Swiss francs to avoid bankruptcy. After analyzing the situation of this entity in depth, UBS confirmed that its former rival’s business was failing and was “deeply flawed”, Ermotti commented.
Until now UBS had not specified what consequences the merger would have for the staff of the two entities, made up of some 120,000 employees worldwide. And although it is still unknown, it is taken for granted that the global cut could be much higher than 3,000 jobs.
The bank closed the second quarter of the year, the first after the acquisition of the other entity, with an attributable net profit of 28,875 million dollars (26,494 million euros), compared to the result of 2,108 million dollars (1,934 million euros). which was recorded in the same period last year. The data reflects the extraordinary positive accounting impact of 28,925 million dollars (26,540 million euros) of the negative goodwill linked to the takeover of Credit Suisse. However, the integration of the entity entailed costs of 830 million dollars (762 million euros), while credit losses subtracted 740 million dollars (679 million euros).
In the second quarter, UBS’s turnover reached 9,540 million dollars (8,753 million euros), which implies an improvement of 7% compared to the same period in 2022, including a 3% growth in interest income net, up to 1,713 million dollars (1,572 million euros) and 8% of commission income, up to 5,175 million dollars (4,748 million euros).
