San Francisco Frontiers - UBS profit beats forecast as Credit Suisse merger nears end

Switzerland's biggest bank posted a net profit of $770 million for the last three months of 2024, compared with a $279 million loss in the same period a year earlier as it wrestled with the weight of integrating its closest domestic rival.

In March 2023, Swiss authorities strongarmed UBS into a $3.25-billion takeover to prevent Credit Suisse from going under, with what could have been catastrophic consequences for the global financial system.

The Zurich-based bank reported a year-on-year seven percent increase in revenue to $11.6 billion, driven by rising stock markets which supported transactions in both wealth management and investment banking.

Analysts surveyed by the Swiss financial newswire AWP had, on average, expected a net income of $536 million on $11.4 billion in revenue.

For the full year 2024, the bank posted a net profit of $5 billion.

"Throughout 2024, we maintained robust momentum as we captured growth in global wealth and asset management and gained market share in the investment bank in the areas where we have made strategic investments," chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in a statement.

"We achieved all key integration milestones in 2024 and significantly reduced execution risk, while our capital position remained robust.

"In 2025, we will continue to execute on the next phase of the integration" of Credit Suisse, he said, adding: "We are confident in our ability to substantially complete the integration by the end of 2026."

UBS and Credit Suisse were among 30 international banks deemed too big to fail due to their importance in the global banking architecture.

The merger of the two largest banks in the country created a megabank of troubling size in relation to the Swiss economy.

In 2024, UBS passed several milestones in the takeover, including in the legal merger, which then made it possible to begin transferring Credit Suisse clients over to UBS's systems.

It said that with the successful migration of wealth management client accounts across booking centres in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Luxembourg, it had transferred more than 90 percent of client accounts outside of Switzerland onto UBS platforms.

U.Campbell--SFF