The Zurich-listed bank is reportedly looking at ways to extend its range of services in the US.

UBS wants to obtain a national banking license in the US, media reports said late last week, as the lender continues to move on from its integration of Credit Suisse.

The story was originally reported by Handelsblatt, a German-language publication. This news service has asked UBS for confirmation, and may update in due course. 

The Americas region is a major part of the UBS pie. Total invested assets in wealth management was $2.096 trillion at the end of September this year, almost half the global total for $4.259 trillion. When measured by revenues, as of the third quarter of 2024, the Americas region (Canada, US and Latin America) of wealth management accounted for $2.838 billion, Switzerland was $1.043 billion, EMEA $1.169 billion, APAC $919 million, global $230 million, and the total for global wealth management, is $6.199 billion. 

There have been other comments in the media about UBS’s Americas ambitions. When it reported its Q3 results, group chairman Colm Kelleher was quoted saying that the bank wishes to eventually buy another US wealth management firm to expand its presence in the country, once the Credit Suisse integration is complete. UBS needs to make the firm which it bought in 2000, Paine Webber, work better, Kelleher told an event in Oxford. The lender is also looking again to do what Morgan Stanley did – doubling its profitability through the purchase of Smith Barney.

As reported here, the bank’s global wealth management arm posted a reported pre-tax operating profit of $1.085 billion in the three months to the end September, rising from $926 million a year ago. Total revenues in the quarter, on a reported basis, were $6.199 billion, rising from $5.953 billion; operating expenses, as reported, were $5.122 billion, versus $5.017 billion.