2023-06-28 10:53:07
According to reports, the Swiss bank UBS is preparing massive job cuts at the acquired Credit Suisse. From next month, more than half of the approximately 45,000 employees of the former local rival are likely to lose their jobs.
According to informed circles, bankers, dealers and support staff at the branches in London, New York and some parts of Asia will be particularly affected by the job cuts. No area is safe from cuts, they say.
Employees were told that they would have to face three waves of layoffs by the end of the year. According to informed circles, the first should come as early as the end of July, further cuts are expected to follow in September and October, according to people familiar with the plans who did not want to be named.
UBS determines the management
Three months after the announcement of the state-sponsored rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS, the consequences for employees are becoming clear. UBS has already announced that it intends to reduce personnel costs by around six billion dollars in the coming years. The takeover of Credit Suisse has increased the workforce to around 120,000.
Ultimately, UBS reportedly wants to cut the number of employees in the group by 35,000 people, which would correspond to around 30 percent of the total workforce. Redburn analysts had recently forecast layoffs of this magnitude in a report. A UBS spokesman declined to comment on the job cuts to Bloomberg news agency.
The leadership of the merged bank is already showing that the former Credit Suisse will hardly play a role anymore. Ulrich Körner, who remains head of the acquired bank, is the only Credit Suisse manager on the management board of the merged bank. In the important area of wealth management, only five of the more than two dozen management positions are occupied by former Credit Suisse employees. UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said at an event in Zurich on Tuesday that the integration was going “very well”.
Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 11 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 7
From the outset, UBS had signaled that it wanted to drastically downsize Credit Suisse’s loss-making investment bank. Her original plan was to keep the top 20 percent of investment bankers, mostly in technology, media and telecoms. Competitors such as Deutsche Bank AG, Jefferies Financial and Wells Fargo have poached numerous bankers from Credit Suisse in recent months. In wealth management, UBS now hopes to be able to retain the majority of bankers, although many have already left, according to reports. A few hundred Credit Suisse private bankers are expected to remain in Asia-Pacific, bringing the total to more than 1,200. Some bankers in Singapore may move to the UBS branch as early as July. The bank will also reportedly need to retain, at least in the short term, the staff responsible for managing structured lending to high net worth clients and Credit Suisse’s equity derivatives.
As for Credit Suisse’s domestic Swiss business, UBS plans to decide in the third quarter whether to integrate it into its own division or pursue another option, such as spin-off or public listing. According to Ermotti, the “baseline scenario” is that UBS keeps Credit Suisse’s Swiss bank. Based on comments made by Ermotti and Chairman Colm Kelleher at works councils and internal meetings, many employees expect the businesses to be merged, especially following the deterioration of Credit Suisse’s domestic wealth management business.
The fate of the Swiss bank is a big issue in the confederation of market power of the combined bank. In the first rounds of reductions, positions related to the overlaps in the Swiss business will probably be excluded. A total of up to 10,000 jobs would be lost if the two domestic divisions were merged. About 30 percent of the merged bank’s employees are employed in Switzerland, but not all work in the actual Swiss business.
#UBS #preparing #cut #Credit #Suisse