The firm, which now puts all its wealth management operations - including those of the Americas - under one roof reported stronger adjusted pre-tax profits today.

UBS said its global wealth management business – which now includes all wealth operations under one roof – logged adjusted profit before tax of SFr1.126 billion ($1.154 billion), a 7 per cent year-on-year rise and up 14 per cent when measured in dollars.

The profit figure contained new records in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region, the Zurich-listed lender said today. Meanwhile, personal and corporate banking logged adjusted profit before tax of SFr393m; transaction-based income and recurring net fee income increased, and net new business volume showed strong growth, UBS said. Asset management had net new money of SFr27billion excluding money markets, taking invested assets to SFr792 billion, the highest in a decade.

These are the first results to be issued by the Swiss bank since it announced in January it was unifying its wealth management businesses, including its Americas operations, into one division. Previously, these businesses had reported separate figures.

For the UBS group as a whole, the firm logged reported pre-tax profit of SFr1.873 billion, up 17 per cent on the year and up 24 per cent in dollars; adjusted pre-tax profit fell 3 per cent to SFr1.876 billion. Net profit attributable to shareholders rose 19 per cent to SFr1.514 billion.

Source: Google

The bank said its CET1 capital ratio, a measure of a bank’s capital strength, stood at 13.1 per cent at the end of the quarter.

Looking ahead, UBS said: “All of UBS's businesses are affected by economic growth expectations, interest rates, equity market levels and foreign exchange rates. While higher compared with last year's historic lows, market volatility remains muted overall which is usually less conducive to client activity. Due to seasonal factors, second quarter transaction-based income in our investment bank and global wealth management businesses is also typically lower than in the first quarter.”

“In the second quarter, funding costs related to long-term debt and capital instruments issued to comply with regulatory funding and liquidity requirements will be higher compared with the same period in 2017,” it said.