© Reuters. UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher looks on during the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit, in Hong Kong, China November 7, 2023. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss banking giant UBS will look for merger and acquisition opportunities in the United States in the coming years, its chairman told NZZ newspaper on Sunday.
UBS, which acquired former rival Credit Suisse last June, wants to expand its wealth management business in the United States through possible mergers and acquisitions in three or four years, Colm Kelleher said.
“Only in wealth management and not yet,” he added.
Since bailing out Credit Suisse, UBS has faced criticism for a balance sheet of more than $1.6 trillion that is almost twice the size of the Swiss economy and has prompted the country to review its regulation of systemically important banks.
Kelleher, however, rejected calls for UBS to be subject to higher capital requirements.
“If you have too much capital, you harm shareholders, but also clients, because banking services become more expensive,” he told NZZ.
The first merger of two systemically important global banking groups also resulted in the return of former boss Sergio Ermotti for a second term at the helm.
Kelleher said Ermotti is the right person for the “herculean task” of integrating Credit Suisse and added that he would like to see Ermotti's successor be someone from UBS.
(This story has been corrected to show that mergers and acquisitions are expected within three or four years, not over the next three or four years, in paragraphs 1 and 2)
