Office address: 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019
Website: ubs.com/us
Year established: 1862
Company type: financial services
Employees: 110,300+
Expertise: wealth management, investment banking, asset management, retirement planning, alternative investments, sustainable investing, corporate solutions, financial planning, risk management, capital markets
Parent company: UBS Group AG (Switzerland)
Key people: Sergio Ermotti (group CEO); Robert Karofsky, George Athanasopoulos, and Marco Valla (co-presidents); Aleksandar Ivanovic (president); Mike Dargan (group chief operations and technology officer); Todd Tuckner (group CFO)
Financing status: corporation
UBS is a leading global bank that specializes in serving high-net-worth clients and institutions. The company manages $6.6 trillion in invested assets and offers tailored financial advice and solutions to individuals, families, and institutions. Its US operations are headquartered in New York.
UBS traces its beginnings to 1862 in Switzerland, when Bank in Winterthur was created to help local business and manage a warehouse. Fifty years later, a merger with Toggenburger Bank formed Union Bank of Switzerland, which quickly grew its network and services across the country.
Swiss Bank Corporation, known as SBC, formed from several mergers in the late 1800s and soon set its sights beyond Switzerland. By 1898, SBC had opened a branch in London, showing its global ambitions.
Both Union Bank of Switzerland and SBC embraced new technology, such as adding machines and early computers. They also opened offices in major financial centers like New York, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.
A turning point came in 1998, when Union Bank of Switzerland and SBC joined forces to create UBS. This merger brought together expertise in various areas which made UBS one of the world’s largest financial institutions.
In 2000, the company entered the US market in a big way by acquiring PaineWebber, an American brokerage and asset manager. This gave the firm a strong presence in New York and across the country.
The company continued to grow, even through financial crises, and expanded its digital banking services worldwide. In 2023, it acquired Credit Suisse which strengthened its role as Switzerland’s largest universal bank.
By 2025, UBS increased checks on client money sources in Asia after a money-laundering scandal. The firm worked with Deloitte and KPMG and closed thousands of smaller accounts.
The firm combines deep market knowledge with access to both traditional and alternative investments. UBS's investment offerings include:
UBS is also known for its strong digital platforms and global network. Clients benefit from disciplined risk management and a wide selection of investment choices.
UBS states that its culture is the foundation for how the company works and adapts to change. The firm’s “three keys” represent the main values and guide daily actions:
UBS aims to create a supportive and flexible work environment for all employees. According to the company, its benefits are designed to help staff balance work and personal life:
UBS also offers regional programs to help employees manage work and family commitments. The company reports that it provides benefits that often go beyond legal requirements.
Sergio P. Ermotti serves as group CEO of UBS Group AG and has been leading the executive board since 2023. Before this, Ermotti led the company from 2011 to 2020 and served as chair at Swiss Re. He also held senior roles at UniCredit Group and Merrill Lynch. He completed advanced management training at the University of Oxford.
The UBS Group Executive Board leads the company’s global operations and oversees key business areas:
UBS Group AG uses a dual board structure as required by Swiss law. The board of directors delegates business management to the executive board.
In 2025, UBS experts shared practical strategies for family wealth conversations, focusing on values, legacy, and open communication. Judy Spalthoff and Libby Stantial explained how purposeful dialogue and programs like Emerging Successors help families prepare future inheritors. Their advice supports clients in building trust and guiding responsible wealth transitions across generations.
UBS leaders like Adrian Zuercher have also highlighted how new clients, especially younger generations and women, are driving demand for ESG and sustainable solutions. The company sees this shift as a sign that stewardship and responsible investing will play a bigger role in its future, as clients look for more return drivers and long-term value.
Caving to pressure, UBS executives reinstated a popular manager after advisers talked of resigning. Mason Braswell has the story.
A Finra arbitration panel has ordered UBS Wealth Management Americas to pay one of its former brokers $5.4 million for representing structured products from Lehman Brothers as being suitable for clients even as Lehman began to falter.
Moving money from one record keeper to another so hard that some clients give up and stay put.
Industry vet says the future lies in retail, with baby boomers retiring and workers being moved to defined contribution plans away from pensions.
Wall Street leaders including Lloyd Blankfein and James Gorman, who have courted business in Vladimir Putin's Russia, are facing a dilemma as tensions over Ukraine escalate.
Coffee is up 80% this year. Lean hogs are up 28%. Corn is up 13%. Gold is up 12%. Most of these same commodities were down last year, and any of them could fall at the drop of a hat. How can an investor take advantage of these markets...and sleep at night?
The <a href="http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20140310/FREE/140319990">proposed Finra bonus disclosure rule</a>, which could curtail the size of mushrooming recruiting packages, exposes a chasm in the advisory industry, pitting smaller broker-dealers against large wirehouses and RIAs.
Two advisers reunite after worked together at Alex. Brown before splitting.
Summit Financial deal is ninth transaction of the year for Focus.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch should be able to top 30% pretax profit margins as retirement demographics and other tail winds help boost the business. But how it will team its brokerage and banking operations is an open question.
The firm snagged five industry veterans from UBS and Wells Fargo, including two branch managers and $275 million in assets.
Markets move quickly and can take us on a roller-coaster ride; the key is to keep emotions in check.
The firm has been expanding its product offerings and has considered an acquisition as independent firms move to compete for ultrawealthy clients.
Executives across the industry, from wirehouses to independent and regional firms, are enjoying fatter paychecks and bigger bonuses as advisers become a more important part of firms' balance sheets. <i>(Don't miss some rather outlandish <a href="http://www.investmentnews.com/gallery/20140324/FREE/324009999/PH" target="_blank">top executive benefits</a>.)</i>
UBS Puerto Rico closed-end muni bond fund investors are losing billions; new research pegs losses at $1.66 billion over the first nine months of 2013.
