What is the Future of UBS IB?
With performance in the Americas continuing to decline at a pretty unprecedented pace, top groups at the firm continuing to lose market share, and the other HR-driven initiatives that have floated around the past few months, can UBS IB in America truly recover, and if so, how long will it take? The leadership at the firm clearly has no intention of removing disappointing seniors and making any moves that may put them closer to the dream 6th spot on the league tables
Would love any honest thoughts and opinions that aren't the same three recently fired associates jerking each other off
📉📉📉📉
Spot on. The Americas IB numbers are straight up embarrassing at this point.
They fell outside the top 20 in fees for all of 2025 and even Stifel is running laps around them on M&A volume while Jefferies and TD are basically doubling their deal count.
It is still way too top heavy with loser MDs who have not delivered in ages and leadership shows zero interest in cleaning house of non performing grifter MDs.
Fees keep sliding even as the rest of the street grabs wallet share in a rebounding market. Without some serious changes at the top I do not see any real recovery happening anytime soon if ever.
Separately, the mandatory five day office push for juniors is awful and is a stealth lay-off tactic that just adds more burnout without touching the real problems. Friday was the usually one day where juniors could actually get enough sleep (since no time spent getting ready/commute) and they took that away. This is management spitting in your face and saying fuck you.
Congrats on UBS!
I am not sure you should congratulate people for walking into cruel and unusual punishment, even more so if in M&A/M&T/FIG where it will be delivered by non-American's.
To be clear, the problem in those groups is not only because of H1Bs - it’s because presence of H1Bs remove the only mechanism that would normally force the bank to fix it: market pressure from workers who can walk away.
The groups are already broken from the top. Culture is toxic because the bosses know they’re underperformers and overcompensate with ego and hours.
Americans see it and vote with their feet - Americans have full mobility and can quit, join a competitor, go to PE/HF etc.
H-1B visas short-circuit the labor market because an H-1B worker’s entire legal right to live and work in the U.S. is tied to that specific employer and that specific job.
As a result: the bank can keep the same terrible pay, same terrible bosses, same soul-crushing hours, and the H-1B employee will still show up. They have no credible exit threat. The market-clearing mechanism is broken.
So the feedback loop becomes self-reinforcing. Because Americans won’t touch it, the group now has to backfill almost exclusively with H-1Bs. Management sees zero turnover pressure, so they never improve the culture, never raise pay, and never replace the bad MDs/EDs/Ds.
Reputation gets even worse → even fewer Americans apply → even heavier reliance on H-1Bs → conditions can get worse, not better.
The policy doesn’t just allow exploitation of individuals (H-1B or otherwise)—it actively protects and perpetuates terrible management and terrible economics that would have been forced out of business in a real free market.
When they admit it’s not working and trim IB down globally? very similar to how they have done it many times in the past.
They should straight up replace tech / M&T / M&A teams, they are a waste actual capital and human capital at this point.
Throw FIG in there. FIG is up there with M&T and M&A as the worst of the bank. Tech doesn't really work; they are bad for the bank but seemingly a okay place to work. FIG/M&T/M&A all do no deals and work extremely sweaty hours.
Hours and culture, yes both very bad and very sweaty.
Inaccurate to say FIG doesn’t do deals, as FIG contributes a lot of IB revenue though, primarily through lead left LF deals/financings.
SB this post if you think MV is doing a bad job
MS this post if you think MV is doing a good job
Easiest bananas ever, well done
OP summoned the UBS hate train
UBS is #24 in the latest Q1 Americas M&A league tables. How does that even happen?
step 1) guaranteed bonuses to ex Barclays MDs who don’t generate fees bc they’re your buddies
Step 2) guaranteed bonuses to junior MDs/washed out MDs because they’re cheaper than hiring actually good MDs
Step 3) bonus pool gets entirely eaten by the groups above and everyone else receives peanuts
Step 4) say you’ll be #6 in the Americas
Step 5) continue the grift for several years and get you and your buddies paid
At some point this has to be considered fraudulent transfer given the comp to fees generated ratio these MDs have
@Bloomberg Victor Swezey please investigate
I've been to the year 3000
Not much has changed, but they lived underwater
And your great-great-great-granddaughter
Is doing fine
Because UBS is finally #6 in the Americas
Nice try Marco
Marco in 2024:
The US market represents about 55 to 60% of the banking wallet, so it's a must win market for us in any of our competitors. UBS is historically has been a little bit subscale in this market and so with the Credit Suisse transaction we now have the opportunity to really become a leading player in this market, complementing what's already a very strong presence in both EMEA and APAC.
And we've done that, you know, quite meaningfully I would say over the last several months. So if you look at our headcount, for example, the Americas, it's up approximately 65% from legacy UBS, so has been in key areas of focus for us, like tech coverage and healthcare coverage. So really exciting to see the increased footprint in areas of meaningful growth. We've also taken on a very meaningful loan book from Credit Suisse and so again, the amount of capital that we're dedicating to this region is, is certainly a lot more than what it's been historically.
So we have the resources in place now and the talent in place to make sure that we go after this market in a meaningful way.
that’s hilarious
Marco should be a comedian not a banker
Next IB head, let’s stir this shit up.
Marco also in 2024:
Again, we've just talked about how we're building out the U.S and how we'll have a more meaningful presence in the U.S going forward. But when you look at the presence that we already have outside of the U.S, it's really extraordinary both in EMEA, which is obviously a meaningful market for us in APAC where we have a leading market position.
So we're effectively already top three in APAC. Our objective is to be top five in EMEA and as we've talked about publicly as well, we're looking to be a number six player here in the Americas. So there's great strength already outside of the Americas and it's exciting to be able to leverage that for the benefit of our clients as we talk about cross-border opportunities and just global trends.
Somehow they haven’t taken it down: https://www.ubs.com/global/en/investment-bank/insights-and-data/2024/a-…
So many UBS bum MDs just taking massive paydays from UBS wealth management.
If you are in wealth management your pay could be worse because of how much of a burden the US IB puts on the entire company
I feel like most of the MDs are bum MDs
Probably 20% of the MDs generating 80% of the revenue…
Pareto Princple sighted.
If UBS were a baseball team they would be the Mets
More like 2024 Chicago white Sox
Or the 1919 White Sox, doing everything to enrich themselves at the expense of the greater team and fans/analysts
Really enjoy working with those imaginative MDs and hardcore H1Bs
Can’t wait until Trump bans H1Bs and UBS becomes a good place to work again
They are so imaginative that they pitch all the clients the same crackpoint "creative" ideas! The bank is so H1B heavy above the analayst level that it's impossible to avoid having one on a deal team for some groups (FIG and M&T for example). 60% - 75% of Americans are good to work for, at most 15-20% of internationals are.
EDs and Ds who are H1Bs are genuinely horrific to work with
It blows my mind how reliant on H1Bs some groups at UBS are
Also when they deferred analysts in 2023 (against their will), H1Bs started on time, while Americans got their start date pushed by 7 months.
It's because the H1B internationals will never complain and will be more subservient to the ridiculous demands of the seniors. They might not be very strong socially or ever bring in business, but they are great at being juniors due to them being tied down by the visa situation.
Ayo someone at NYU show this to Barron and get him to convince the admin to pull their US national charter, they don’t deserve to expand in the US
After watching this, I agree.
Wait what’s wrong with giving jobs to H1Bs instead of Americans and banking nazis?
Swiss Nazi sympathizers, who prefer not hiring American, and generally don’t do bussiness with guns, defense, oil or any other non Swiss approved industry
We yes WE are all reneging our EB offers to join UBS TMT
The only person UBS M&T/M&A/FIG can hire is internationals for a reason. No American above analyst level wants to join after meeting the people in those groups. Whoever leaves within the year because of how terrible the experience is. It's the among the worst hours on the street with no deal flow or exits; the worst of all worlds.
Is UBS non-target friendly ?
Why is the culture so bad in those groups? Is it top down driven by group head/MDs or individual personalities at different levels?
Someone needs to audit the IBs books and look at who deciding on bonus structures MDs in the “in” crowd enriching themselves
One of the M&A heads recently bought themselves a ~$5M Westchester oceanfront villa (public record) on the backs of H1Bs and underperformance
How did they fuck this up so bad?
Went from being gifted CS to literally becoming the joke IB of the decade.
Mostly general Barclays MD Arrogance, the 10-15 MDs in command.
From what I’ve heard they thought they were the hot shot “gods chosen ones” to lead the IB to a new level.
What they did was create a two-tiered system with their own new power structure:
-Insinuate and act like all Credit Suisse and UBS bankers already there were all retards
-Hire only their internal connections to higher that their seniority merited, chosen associates treated like VPs with offices (where all other associates didn’t get offices), jr MDs treated like Senior MDs, existing group heads demoted to becoming vicechairmen
-Take credit for all the work UBS and CS bankers had going on, even if it was work outside their own group by stretching even exaggerating their own coverage areas
What that did was:
-Most UBS and CS bankers pretty much left
-MDs becoming increasingly panicked by declining performance and inefficiently pitching like crazy
-Only the Barclays MDs, their hires own and H1Bs performance is now showing up on the league tables and it’s not pretty
And at the end of the day, based on talking to a couple folks at Barclays, this team wasn’t even that good which is why Marco was passed up for promotion in the first place at Barclays and took those who didn’t have a bright future at Barclays with him to UBS.
A relatively small group of imported senior bankers came in and effectively built a new hierarchy over the top of an already fragile UBS / CS integration and looted bonus pool to enrich themselves. A lot of top legacy UBS and CS bankers who actually owned client relationships either got sidelined, saw the writing on comp / titles / influence, or got tired of being treated like second-class citizens and left for better platforms.
That is why the league table collapse looks so bad. You doubled down on senior headcount, absorbed CS, hired a bunch of Barclays people, and still ended up with a smaller effective franchise. The Americas business went from a combined UBS + CS top-five-ish platform to not even top 20 / sub-1% share in some tables. You could write a business school case study on this..
Those guys do wonder around like tigers in the jungle, but they’re not tigers
Marco and cronies: Yeah because of the low league table standing and potential long term negative implication on our careers, we are going to need at least $1M more for each of us per year and an extension on our guarantees
Sergio: Here you go! (Earmarks $20M more to the IB bonus pool for them to share)
🎬 ESPN 30 for 30: Double or Nothing: How UBS Lost the Deal
What if I told you…
you could be handed a second investment bank—
and the people brought in to fix it… made it worse?
In 2023, UBS absorbed Credit Suisse—a crisis deal that was supposed to create a global powerhouse.
Instead, it created a power struggle.
A small group of imported senior bankers took control—promising to rebuild the franchise. They brought their own people, built a new hierarchy, and treated legacy UBS and Credit Suisse teams as expendable.
Titles were reshuffled.
Loyalists elevated.
Experience sidelined.
What followed wasn’t integration—it was replacement.
Top relationship bankers left.
Client ownership fractured.
Institutional knowledge walked out the door.
And as performance declined… the response wasn’t discipline.
It was denial.
More senior hires.
More internal politics.
More pressure pushed downward.
Because when results didn’t come, the structure didn’t change—
it doubled down.
Meanwhile, competitors like Jefferies and Wells Fargo gained ground—executing while UBS reorganized itself into irrelevance.
The result?
A combined UBS and Credit Suisse platform that once had top-tier ambitions…
now struggling to stay competitive.
Because in investment banking, you can’t promote your way to performance.
You can’t reorganize your way to credibility.
And you definitely can’t import culture… without consequences.
What was supposed to be a rescue…
became a reset gone wrong.
30 for 30 — Double or Nothing: How UBS Lost the Deal
This should be a documentary that is watched in every M&A class. Key lesson don’t bring in a random third party to manage integration when they don’t know shit about the bussiness. Let the two groups merge internally because that alone is enough of a distraction
Barclays becomes better and better since they left
I feel like UBS/CS integration would’ve been okay without them.
Other IB units (Europe/Asia) as well as other bank units (WM) have had some issues but largely transition has been smooth.
UBS has to turn things around at some point no?
What’s next, #30 in the league tables?
When will the bottom (in terms of wallet share) be in?
What’s Lehman brothers current league table standing?
(Fun fact some of the same characters involved in this sequel)
Yeah but Lehman wasn’t connected to worlds largest WM
Marco and my GH can S my D I aint coming in on Fridays to pretend I’m busy. We have no live deals that will close
Congrats on no live deals that will close!
Devastated that haven’t close any M&A deals in the last 2 years, but only refinancing
Good luck exiting when you don’t have any M&A deals on your resume!
They’re going to replace you with an H1B
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