Plans announced UBS plans to close dozens of branches at the beginning of 2025
UBS plans to close around 85 branches in the first quarter of 2025. This was announced on Wednesday.
11.09.2024, 10:12
11.09.2024, 10:36
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- UBS plans to close around 85 branches in the first quarter of 2025.
- This was announced on Wednesday.
- Only around 190 branches are to remain.
UBS Switzerland boss Sabine Keller-Busse expects around 190 branches to remain at the end of the integration of Credit Suisse. Following the takeover of Credit Suisse, the bank must get a grip on costs in its local business.
As early as the first quarter of 2025, 85 "duplicate" branches are to be merged, as Sabine Keller-Busse, Head of Switzerland at the big bank, said on Wednesday at an annual UBS investor conference. The "better" location will always be selected. By 2026, around 190 branches will remain.
That would be roughly as many as UBS already had without Credit Suisse. According to the latest figures, Credit Suisse still has around 95 branches in Switzerland.
Costs skyrocket
In order to return to the usual profitability after the takeover of CS, Keller-Busse is focusing on the "right" level of costs as well as on growth in strategic business areas and optimizing the balance sheet, she added. The medium-term goal is to achieve an adjusted return on attributed equity in the Personal & Corporate Banking division - as UBS calls its Swiss business - of around 19 percent.
In the first half of 2024, this was 14.7 percent. Before the takeover of CS in 2022, UBS had a figure of 19.5 percent.
Costs have skyrocketed with the CS integration: Operating expenses rose by around half to CHF 1.27 billion in Keller-Busse's business in the second quarter. The important cost/income ratio - how efficiently a bank operates - increased massively to 61.4 percent from 51.6 percent in the same quarter of the previous year. Credit Suisse is only included for one month in the second quarter of 2023 as it was acquired in June.
