When Sergio Ermotti exited UBS’s newly refurbished headquarters on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse for the last time on November 1, he left his employer in fine shape. The Swiss lender has had a startlingly good year.
UBS’s profit rose 99.5% year on year to $2.1 billion in the three months to the end of September 2020 – the best third-quarter performance in a decade. Through the first nine months, profits rose 37.4% on an annualized basis to $4.92 billion.
There were relatively favourable conditions for UBS. Although Switzerland’s economy probably shrank by around 5% in 2020, the rest of Western Europe fared far worse.
But UBS profited this year in part because what it does well – notably wealth management – is well suited to these kinds of big systemic shocks.
Its global wealth management division posted a pre-tax profit of $1.06 billion in the third quarter, up 18% year on year. That’s the best third-quarter data since 2011, driven by record figures from Asia and the Americas.
Why?
