UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti discusses the outlook for the bank, progress on the integration of Credit Suisse, and the potential inflationary impact of trade tariffs as US President Donald Trump turns rhetoric into action. Although “the tariff topic has been somehow already priced in the market,” this doesn’t apply to all “negative outcomes,” Ermotti said in an interview with Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua in Zurich. They spoke after UBS reported profit for the final quarter of 2024 that beat expectations, aiding the Swiss bank in boosting buyback plans for this year to $3 billion.
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I'm very happy. 2024 was a successful year for us, and we delivered on all our key priorities, not only in terms of the integration where we saw major mergers of operating legal entities being successfully executed. We started migrating a de facto 90% of the clients booked outside Switzerland and successfully. And we also de-risked our balance sheet. And now we are also making very good progress in our asset gathering businesses in wealth management and asset management. And we are gaining market shares in the investment bank in all areas where we want to compete and we continue to be a reliable partner for the Swiss economies and for the Swiss economy to households and businesses by granting 70 billion of new loans, which, you know, makes our outstanding balances of 350 billion and we are investing for the future. So it's very important for us to think about next year. And so we are investing in AI, in new capabilities, in new products to stay competitive.
So when you look at the integration, I mean, it's full speed ahead. You're about six months ahead. Is there one month that seems more critical than the others?
No. Look at the most critical part of the integration as being always going the migration, the data migration. We are migrating in total, around ten petabytes of data, 15 have been migrated outside Switzerland. The big chunk of migration is going to start in few months. In Switzerland, we will migrate the balance of around 95 petabytes in three tranches, basically in the spring, late year and the beginning of 2026. And this is definitely a journey that requires a lot of planning and a lot of good work and the team is on top of it. So but we cannot be complacent. So it is a very big task.
Very good. I mean, in Asia, if you think about the fact that we have been growing very fast, but most importantly, we have been doing that while going through the migration. And so all our colleagues from the bank have been somehow distracted by that. But at the same time, they were able to stay close to clients, grow assets, grow our business and be a reliable partner. So in that sense, I'm also pleased with the progress we make in the US, both in the investment bank and also in wealth management, where we are now executing on our plans to restore a good level of profitability. And in the investment bank we are gaining market share.
Look, I think that we are in the US is a very important markets across the board. For us it is the largest wealth management market in the world. We are an important player there. We want to enhance our capabilities, we want to enhance our profitability. And in terms of the investment bank, we see a good momentum in the pipeline building up. Having said that, if you look at year to date volumes and activities in capital markets is down 26% year on year. So while it's a very promising pipeline, the truth of the matter is that the year started in a rather slow way compared to last year. But when you talk about enhancing capabilities with that also be through acquisitions in the US. I think it's at this stage it's totally premature for us to talk about acquisitions. We have enough to do in order to improve our profitability with the current set up. And so we need to digest what we have on the table right now and then we'll think about the future.
So I know it's been a couple of quarters where there's this overhang of capital requirements from the Swiss authorities. Any more information of what they want to do now?
Look, you know, I know as much as you do in terms of exactly what they want to do. We're going to know much more in May, according to the state Secretariat for Finance, International Financial Matters, the public consultations of the government proposals are going to be released in May. So hopefully the proposal will be aligned with the desire of the Swiss Federal Council to maintain a competitive financial center and allowing UBS to be competitive in the marketplace. And, you know, for us also to be able to be a reliable partner to the Swiss economy.
