In an interview with Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, incoming UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti eased worries about the size of the new bank created by its takeover of Credit Suisse. While critics have voiced concern about the forced merger – designed to bolster global financial stability in a period of turmoil – Ermotti stressed that the combined entity, with $1.6 trillion in assets and more than 120,000 employees, would not be among the largest international banks. “Even putting UBS and Credit Suisse together, we won’t be at the top of the classification for international banks in terms of size,” he said.
“We have a good position thanks to our activities, and our greater critical mass at a global level will certainly give us another advantage. The question of excessive size does not arise.”
Sergio Ermotti, UBS CEO.
Ermotti, who served as chief executive of UBS from 2011 to 2020 and is now chairman of the insurance group Swiss Re, will officially take over the bank on April 5. He has expressed his commitment to maintaining UBS’s model that emphasizes wealth management, focusing on containing investment banking risk. This core feature has been met with a mixed response in Switzerland, where lawmakers and citizens are concerned about the high level of state support provided to banks via liquidity and guarantees amounting to approximately 260 billion Swiss francs ($284 billion).
“If you look at the full framework for the acquisition, I think you can say that the guarantees from the National Bank and Confederation are reasonable.”
Sergio Ermotti, UBS CEO.
