UBS Group AG

What does UBS Group own?

The group owns all UBS businesses across wealth management, Swiss retail banking, asset management, and investment banking, plus the integrated remnants of Credit Suisse. It operates under the single UBS brand and manages more than $7 trillion in invested assets.

Is UBS publicly traded?

Yes. UBS Group AG trades on the SIX Swiss Exchange under UBSG and on the New York Stock Exchange under UBS. Its shares are widely held by global institutional and retail investors.

Who founded UBS?

No individual founded modern UBS; it is a merger entity created in 1998. Its predecessors were Bank in Winterthur, founded 1862 (Union Bank of Switzerland), and Swiss Bank Corporation, founded 1872.

Where is UBS headquartered?

The group is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, at Bahnhofstrasse 45. It maintains major hubs in London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Krakow.

How many brands does UBS own?

UBS operates essentially one master brand across its divisions. The Credit Suisse brand is being retired as integration completes, leaving UBS as the sole consumer-facing name.

Who owns UBS?

Public shareholders own UBS Group AG. No controlling shareholder or government stake exists. Institutional investors hold the largest positions, with wide international dispersion.

Did UBS buy Credit Suisse?

Yes. UBS acquired its failing rival in a government-engineered rescue agreed in March 2023 for 3 billion Swiss francs. The legal merger completed in May 2024, and integration including client migration ran through 2025 and 2026.

UBS formed in 1998 through the merger of Union Bank of Switzerland, founded in Winterthur in 1862 as Bank in Winterthur, and Swiss Bank Corporation, founded in Basel in 1872. The combination created what was then Europe's largest bank, adopting the UBS name and the three-keys logo Swiss Bank Corporation had used since the 1940s.

The merged group built the dominant wealth management franchise through the 2000s, acquiring U.S. broker PaineWebber in 2000 for roughly $10.8 billion to anchor its American private client business. Simultaneously it expanded its investment bank aggressively into structured products and proprietary trading.

The 2008 crisis hit UBS harder than any European peer. The bank wrote down more than $50 billion on U.S. mortgage assets, accepted a Swiss government capital injection and a central bank-funded bad bank, and faced a U.S. tax evasion prosecution that ended in 2009 with a $780 million settlement and the handover of American client names, a historic breach of Swiss banking secrecy.

The recovery restructured the bank fundamentally. Under chief executives Oswald Grubel and Sergio Ermotti, UBS shrank its fixed income investment bank by more than 90 percent of risk-weighted assets, refocused on capital-light wealth management, and rebuilt capital ratios that became a model other banks later copied. By the mid-2010s it was the most profitable large bank in Europe on a return basis.

March 2023 brought the defining event of the modern bank. Credit Suisse, weakened by years of scandals including the Archegos and Greensill losses, suffered a deposit run that forced Swiss authorities to engineer a rescue over a single weekend. UBS agreed to acquire its rival for 3 billion Swiss francs, with the legal merger completing in May 2024. Integration has since delivered cumulative cost savings of $10.7 billion by end of 2025, with all non-Swiss client accounts and 85 percent of Swiss-booked accounts migrated to UBS platforms.

Fiscal 2025 showed the combined franchise at full strength: net profit of $7.8 billion, group invested assets above $7 trillion for the first time, Global Wealth Management net new assets of $101 billion, a 22 percent dividend increase, and confirmation of 2026 targets plus new ambitions for 2028.

UBS publishes annual sustainability reporting aligned with Swiss and EU frameworks and is a founding signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking. The group has committed to net-zero emissions across operations and financed activities by 2050, with interim sector targets covering high-emitting industries.

The bank discloses financed emissions for carbon-intensive sectors and has reduced fossil fuel lending under policies tightened since 2023. Environmental groups including Swiss NGOs have criticized the credibility of targets, particularly regarding fossil fuel exposures inherited in the Credit Suisse portfolio. These are corporate commitments rather than third-party product certifications.

UBS consistently ranks first in global wealth management rankings by Euromoney and other industry evaluators, a position it has held for consecutive years through the Credit Suisse integration. The group was recognized for integration execution in 2025 financial industry awards, and its Swiss retail bank holds top domestic positions in independent customer surveys.

UBS carries one of the heavier regulatory records in global banking. The 2009 $780 million U.S. tax settlement broke Swiss banking secrecy norms. A 2015 $545 million penalty resolved foreign exchange manipulation charges. A French court in 2021 upheld a verdict finding the bank guilty of laundering proceeds of tax fraud for French clients, with penalties set near €1.8 billion after appeals.

The Credit Suisse inheritance brings continuing exposure: U.S. proceedings related to Credit Suisse's pre-acquisition role in the Archegos collapse and the Mozambique loan scandal are working through courts with UBS as successor defendant. The bank has provisioned for legacy litigation.

The live policy controversy is Swiss capital regulation. Authorities have proposed requiring UBS to hold significantly more capital against its foreign subsidiaries, arguing a bank its size relative to Swiss GDP needs bigger buffers. UBS argues the proposals would damage Swiss competitiveness; the political fight remained unresolved as of late 2026.