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.
Morgan Stanley is quietly hunting for a new top executive to run its investment management business, one of the world's largest — albeit shrinking — money management operations.
The broker recruiting wars are heating up, with wirehouses jacking up their offers to new heights to lure more representatives in 2010.
Just A few weeks after officially joining UBS AG as the head of its U.S. wealth management business, Bob McCann has snared four veterans from his former firm, Merrill Lynch & Co., to help improve UBS' financial advisory business here.
Although five exchanges will soon vie to clear credit default swap trades in Europe and the United States, the number is likely to dwindle to one on each side of the Atlantic in the next couple of years, according to analysts and industry participants.
The number of defendants agreeing to settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped for the second straight time in fiscal 2009, declining nearly 8% to 626 defendants from 673 in fiscal 2008, according to a report released today by NERA Economic Consulting.
Fidelity Investments today unveiled an expanded Transition Solutions program that it says will help brokers at large firms make sense of the options open to them as they weigh independence.
A wealthy accountant who provided extensive help in the tax evasion probe of Swiss bank UBS AG was sentenced to a year of house arrest Wednesday after admitting he concealed about $6 million in assets from the IRS.
Many U.S. taxpayers with unreported income from hidden offshore accounts have decided to participate in the government's tax amnesty program, which ends tomorrow, according to tax attorneys.
A proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require advisory firms that hold custody of client assets to be audited by accountants that are inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board would cost each firm an average of $200,000, according to one new estimate.
TD Ameritrade Institutional unveiled a tool last week that gives its business development efforts a technological boost.
The Charles Schwab Corp. today said it will not meet New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's demand that it repurchase auction rate securities from clients that purchased them from the discount-brokerage firm, even though its exposure to a buyback is relatively limited.
Swiss tax authorities said Tuesday they have notified the first 500 clients of Swiss bank UBS AG whose names they want to hand over to the United States for alleged tax cheating.
UBS AG's wealth management business in the Americas returned to profitability in the third quarter, despite losing financial advisers and client assets.
Some 7,500 international tax dodgers have applied for an amnesty program that promises no jail time and reduced penalties for tax cheats who come forward, the IRS announced Wednesday.
The U.S. and Swiss governments have agreed on most major disputes in Washington's effort to get names of thousands of wealthy Americans suspected of evading taxes by hiding billions in assets with Swiss banking giant UBS AG.
