UBS AG

History

UBS traces its roots back to 1747, when one of the bank's branches was founded in the Swiss region of Valposchiavo. However, the three core components of the company date back to second half of the nineteenth century. Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation, and PaineWebber or their antecedents were all founded in the 1860s and 1870s.

UBS was formed through a merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation in June 1998. SBC had just previously built a global investment banking business through its acquisitions of Dillon Read in New York and S.G. Warburg in London. The first chairman of the merged bank had to step back in October 1998 due to the Long-Term Capital Management crisis, which affected the Union Bank of Switzerland. In 2000, UBS acquired PaineWebber Group Inc. to become the world's largest wealth management firm for private clients. Invested assets in all wealth management businesses, including the U.S., total CHF 2.766 trillion.

On June 9th, 2003, all UBS business groups rebranded under the UBS name. UBS Painewebber, UBS Warburg, UBS Asset Management, and others became just "UBS". As a result of the rebranding, UBS took a $1B write off for the loss of brand value of PaineWebber. UBS is no longer an acronym but is the company's brand, like 3M or BP. Its logo of three keys stands for confidence, security, and discretion.History of UBS (1937-1939)

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide, with offices in 50 countries. According to the UBS website, the bank had 70,210 employees on March 31, 2006. The 2006 Q1 report breaks these Financial Business permanent staff down by region as: 25,645 in Switzerland, 27,356 in the Americas, 11,341 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (not including Switzerland), and 5,868 in Asia and Australasia.

People

Management

Marcel Ospel is the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The Group Executive Board is the executive body of the company. ([1]) Its members are:

• Group CEO: Peter Wuffli
• Deputy Group CEO, Chairman and CEO Global Wealth Management & Business Banking: Marcel Rohner
• Chairman and CEO Global Asset Management: John A. Fraser
• Chairman and CEO Investment Bank: Huw Jenkins
• Group General Counsel: Peter Kurer
• Group Chief Financial Officer: Clive Standish
• Group Chief Risk Officer: Walter Stuerzinger
• Chairman & CEO Americas: Robert Wolf
• Chairman and CEO Asia Pacific: Rory Tapner
• Head Wealth Management International: Raoul Weil

Former directors and managers

• Leon Brittan, Vice Chairman, UBS Warburg, 1999 | Colin Buchan | James Sassoon From 1985 - 2002, latterly as Vice Chairman, and then adviser to Alistair Darling and then after defecting to the Tories George Osborne | Shriti Vadera, Warburg Dillon Read |

External Resource

• Wikipedia UBS AG

Financial Action Task Force Sir James Sassoon, accessed 15 March 2009

James Kirkup, Gordon Brown's former City envoy James Sassoon defects to Conservatives Daily Telegraph, Last Updated: 5:28PM BST 28 Sep 2008