FINANCIALS: UBS: Wealth Reboot Likely Immaterial, Basel III News The Driver

UBS (UBS: A3 dev/A-/A): conducting “reboot” of wealth strategy under new leaders. Sensible but immaterial – UBS spreads more dictated by Switzerland’s apparent early implementation of Basel III, which we view as a spread positive.

• BBG is reporting the reboot is aiming to “bring more investment services to its ultra-rich client base” and creating a new unit called GWM Solutions. Iqbal Khan, the banker who famously fell out with ex-CS CEO Thiam and then moved to UBS to run wealth, is to move to Asia and become co-head of wealth, alongside becoming “president” of Asia-Pacific region.
• UBS spreads have largely tracked the €IG peers YTD and over the last month as the bank grapples with the massive job of integrating and restructuring CS. The above change is perhaps sensible but unlikely to be a credit mover.
• More importantly for UBS was yesterday’s news that the Swiss are set to plough ahead with Basel III implementation in 2025, earlier than expectations for much of the rest of the world, leaving UBS potentially holding more capital than peers for a year or so. We view that element as a spread positive.