(22 November 2024 – United States) Swiss banking giant UBS is seeking a national banking license to offer loans, accept deposits and expand its operations in the United States.
After absorbing Credit Suisse in 2023, the major global bank is considering an application for broader operational permissions under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
US banking clients are generally more closely linked to their advisor than financial institutions (Fis) themselves, matching the prevailing Swiss broker model.
UBS’s corporate strategy allows it to allocate only 25 percent of the bank’s assets to investment banking, which could limit the firm’s ability to lend for deals. Not since 2014 has a European bank broken into the top five in global investment-banking revenue (Deutsche Bank).
UBS is targeting higher margin private equity (PE) firms to represent up to 40 percent of the investment bank’s business. Winning assignments with large corporate clients is still a priority, given the possibility for multimillion-dollar merger-deal payoffs and the ancillary business that can come with them.
The US market is crucial for the combined banking group with almost a half of UBS’s wealth management revenue generated in the region and over US$2 trillion in client assets held across LatAm and North America.
“We identify the US as a vital growth area, particularly after the acquisition of Credit Suisse in 2023” commented UBS CEO, Sergio Ermotti,.
“The bank’s long-term vision includes acquiring a US wealth management firm to accelerate growth in the region. However, this goal will only be pursued after the full integration of Credit Suisse” stated UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher.