Are all these UBS postings bullshit?
Sorry but I feel like for the past year every time I log in to wall street oasis all I see is UBS shitting posts every day. Rumors about how it'll cease to exist, layoffs, etc etc etc.
Nonstop.
I can't help but wonder. Is there someone here that has a short on UBS? Like are you guys trying to manipulate markets? Or is it someone trying to get rid of it as competition? Or is everything that's being said here true?
It's to the point where it's so excessive that I can't tell if this site has become a gossip forum, and whether the gossip is true, bullshit, or something else. I'm curious to hear the POV's of actual people at UBS.
Former employee who recently quit UBS. I think the posts are mostly rooted in reality, albeit sometimes pretty exaggerated. I had an extremely negative experience overall with my group (hours, culture, deal flow) and would not recommend it unless you don’t have any better options. Really LF/Industrials are the only half decent groups at UBS and those both have downsides as well.
Additionally, keep in mind that post-CS acquisition, a lot of people got the short end of the stick so there’s plenty of disgruntled analysts / asos out there.
Congrats on UBS!
UBS gets too much air time given they are known for having a terrible culture, terrible deal flow and increasingly terrible exits
No the bank really really sucks.
Reposting someone’s comment from another thread:
Had a pretty bad experience at UBS. Majority of the people I worked with did not grow up in the US and were a mismatch to US corporate culture(unsurprisingly lead to not winning USA mandates). In general was not a fan of the leadership from MDs, EDs, directors. Everything was always chaotic and people scrambling and pointing fingers. Very few smooth operators with high social EQ(which ironically is what you need to win on the sellside).
As others noted, most people I knew who stayed were in one of the camps:
Just a wierd culture. It's been so much better after lateraling. I was scared to make the jump but so glad I did. There really is a better path.
Should incoming 2027 analysts be worried?
Congrats on UBS!
Yes there is a world where Morgan Stanley buys UBS for their wealth unit and fires all UBS Investment bank
Can't tell if this is a joke or not, but curious with all the merger rumors (not just MS but also Standard Chartered etc), how UBS IB could be effected
many people shit on UBS IRL too, it just sounds like an awful place to work from the stories I’ve heard and then people posting here
Poasters have showed up to this post in numbers. Unfortunately, since it’s been years since they got laid off, they can’t make arguments that aren’t applicable to virtually any bank
I’ll throw in my two cents as someone who worked there: it’s still a solid bank, even if it’s not what it was historically. Assuming we’re talking US IB given this forum - UBS IB is still top tier in EMEA and APAC.
The volume of negative posts on here feels outright manufactured. Wouldn’t be surprised at all if a lot of them were coming from the same disgruntled current or former employee. It's gotten really tired and frankly needs to stop as there's no new information or verifiable claims in any of them.
Obviously, some groups are stronger than others. You’re going to see more deal flow in industrials than tech. The post-CS restructuring has been messy, and some of the Barclays hires haven’t worked out as expected. But they’ve also made some solid hires recently, including bringing in a PJT partner as vice chair, so something must be going right. There are fair criticisms, but the way this forum talks about the place is over the top.
Let’s stick to US investment banking, because the actual results make your defense look remarkably thin.
In June 2026, eFinancialCareers reported UBS ranked 22nd in US M&A fees year to date, versus 23rd over the comparable period in 2025. Moving up one spot while remaining outside the top 20 is a pretty miserable advertisement for the platform. Those are reported fee rankings, not anonymous forum grievances.
And this wasn’t for lack of hiring. By August, eFinancialCareers reported that UBS had doubled its US dealmaking team to approximately 200 since acquiring Credit Suisse and hired 17 M&A bankers in America during 2025. My criticism is straightforward: where is the competitive payoff for all that expansion? Headcount and impressive résumés mean very little if the franchise remains an also-ran in US M&A fees.
The hiring argument also cuts both ways. Bloomberg reported in May that Richard Hardegree, one of the Barclays bankers UBS recruited in 2023, was leaving for Bank of America. You can’t celebrate incoming senior bankers as proof of success and wave away outgoing ones as irrelevant.
“They hired a PJT partner” is a recruitment update. Candidates need evidence of mandates, execution opportunities and a business that can turn expensive hires into fees.
The weakest part of your post is demanding verifiable claims while inventing a theory about one disgruntled employee manufacturing the criticism. No disgruntled employee manufactured that reported US M&A ranking.
UBS’s US investment bank needs a stronger argument than prestigious hires, excuses about restructuring and complaints that people are being too negative. If the results are embarrassing to discuss, the problem is the results.
You’re arguing against claims I didn’t make. I said UBS is still a solid bank, not that it’s a leading US M&A franchise. I agree some of the Barclays hires haven’t worked out. I didn’t wave away anyone leaving - and if you think those hires were part of the problem, why automatically treat one of them leaving as bad? Maybe that’s a positive development.
Mentioning a recent PJT hire is acknowledging a positive alongside the negatives. I read a BBG article and thought “interesting hire.” That’s it.
The fact that my response prompted a full prosecutorial brief on a Saturday morning is pretty much the reaction I’m talking about. People come here for useful firsthand information about banks and specific groups to help make pretty consequential career decisions. Seeing the same AI slop images about a bank posted over and over adds nothing to that.
I know a former ED there that was talking poorly about the platform years before he was even laid off so it’s been consistent from what I can tell
UBS in the Americas is a team with a bad owner (MV), bad GMs (Groupheads), bad coaching (MDs) and mediocre players (juniors)
To answer the original question - UBS IB is not a great place to work. I used to work at Barclays with several of the MDs that moved over to UBS. 50% of the new associates quit within a few months at Barclays. We used to have face sheets with a bunch of X’s overall the people that quit. Some quit without a job lined up. It just wasn’t worth it for them. I lateraled to another bank. The experience at the new bank was a night a day difference compared to Barclays. Not surprised that culture transferred over to UBS after the MDs went over there. The MDs at Barclays/UBS have no idea what they are doing. Then there is a trickle effect down to the analyst. It’s a fire drill with everyone yelling at each other because MDs have little clue on how to bring in deals. So, you create massive decks on unrealistic time lines with no direction. The presentations lack flow, creative ideas, and often are not used at meetings. Deals are rarely won. This leaves analyst to get a lackluster experience and everyone else miserable.
Yes, my guess is that these posts are all BS. Simply because logically reasoning tells me normal people don't spend this much of their time discussing a random bank. It's likely a disgruntled ex-employee or candidate that made a dozen accounts just replying to each other.
Writing off all the UBS posts about problems at UBS as just one upset analyst is fairly disingenuous
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