UBS Global Fees in 2025 collapses, now behind BNP / RBC
What is going on? How have they fallen so fast? I thought they were top 10 globally but looks like they keep dropping
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They totally fumbled the CS acquisition. Seemingly had no appreciation for the fact that so many of the best bankers had already left in the years/months prior. Also, at least in my sector, shocking who they decided to keep vs lay off at the MD/D level. Literally the opposite of what I would have done.
“Literally the opposite of what I would have done” alright buddy. Maybe if you got your head out of your ass and looked around, you’d have seen that news story that Santander is stuck holding over a billion dollars of some PE sh*tco’s debt on its books because the CS “rainmakers” who are now running the show there made a little bit of a misjudgment in the risk department.
In all seriousness, UBS definitely made some mistakes but I think it’s good that they (a) didn’t literally become CS and (b) are doing more in IB than they did before.
Unfortunately they didn’t become CS…
Unfortunately they didn’t become a top 10 Global bank…
Unfortunately they aren’t really involved in leading blockbuster deals (cause practically no one on any team would know how to do so effectively due to lack of experience)
They had no appreciation for the best bankers may be true, but UBS were forced into this acquisition by the Swiss Central Bank / Government. They were happy and content with getting the asset and wealth management units but had to take on a declining bank. Not sure they could've done much other than do a rebrand and spin-off as First Boston and get some cash. Obviously way easier said than done
Agree, in my group they have hired externally and empowered (eg staffers) all the toxic people, and gotten rid of legacy people that were respected but not hand picked by new BarclayBro management.
Please for the love of god use the search function on WSO. UBS has been the most talked about bank in this entire forum by far for the past 2 years or so. Summary: CS rainmakers are all gone, leaving a lot of legacy UBS rainmakers, senior leadership all run by Barclays MD's who haven't brought in any deals, morale in a lot of teams is dead, groups like Industrials are cutting people rapidly.
Curious how these data providers calculate fees? Latest earnings call show higher advisory fees in billions than the likes of Wells Fargo etc
This include fees from ECM/DCM as well, so EBs don't show up. Wells Fargo outranks UBS in M&A advisory volume this year, but UBS has higher fees than Wells Fargo because it has advised on a larger number of deals.
Their bonuses are historically bad so this certainly can’t help
My roomate at UBS who was upper-middle bucket got paid more than me as top bucket at BoFA. It's not historically bad, BoFA is way worse.
What if BofaA just tells everyone they are top bucket
My girlfriend works there and always gets pretty bad bonuses relative to her friends at other banks
Seems to be group dependent, top analysts get taken care of for the most part, at least more than BofA/Citi
At least top buckets at both Citi and BoFA get live deal work unlike UBS. Maybe I am just coping as someone at BoFA/Citi, but the real money in this career isn't in your first few years. I am happy with the experience I have gotten, and I think being top bucket at BoFA get you pretty great deal exposure and experience. I am not sure how much even the top bucket people at UBS are closing or where they are exiting to outside of run-of-the mill MM PE, so in the long-run BoFA/Citi still win.
citi an1 top was 75/80k, was ubs above that?
I have yet to close any deal after a couple years and don’t really know how M&A works. I’m a monster at marketing materials though
which group?
M&T. Avoid.
Don't worry they just hired Mike Yee. They'll reach the top in no time
/s
Absolutely trash year for UBS IB, no doubt. Q3 was decent but 1H and Q4 are gonna be bad.
I know that morale is low across all the weak coverage groups, which now includes GIG and the group that I’m in. Over the past two years good, nice people have quit or gotten laid off after giving up on the platform and coasting in perpetuity.
In their place they have elevated people based on politics and fealty from past firms.
TLDR: Deal flow is very weak, morale / culture at UBS is at a low point (used to be a great culture bank)
Seeing reports of more layoffs in mid January. Nice of them to clip people right before bonuses…
Not sure why youre getting MS…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-18/ubs-plans-january-job-cuts-to-kick-off-final-year-of-integration
Not really a surprise. Any bank post integration will typically have material reductions in force (see JPM/Bear, Barclays, Lehman, BofA/Merrill etc) and as your article points out this has been well telegraphed and this piece at least talked about more specifics for Switzerland and systems vs US IB but may have missed something.
2026 is our year! As soon as January comes we are off to the races and will succeed. #sarcasm
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