62 Facts About UBS

1.

UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland.

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2.

Apart from private banking, UBS provides wealth management, asset management, and investment banking services for private, corporate, and institutional clients with international service.

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3.

UBS manages the largest amount of private wealth in the world, counting approximately half of the world's billionaires among its clients.

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4.

In late 2016, UBS established a blockchain technology research lab in London to advance its cyber security and encryption of client activities.

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5.

UBS is a primary dealer and Forex counterparty of the U S Federal Reserve.

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6.

UBS is a joint-stock company pursuant to Swiss laws.

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7.

UBS is the leading provider of retail banking and commercial banking services in Switzerland, as established already in 2009.

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8.

UBS offers brokerage services and products as well as asset management and other investment advisory and portfolio management products and services.

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9.

Additionally, UBS provides a broad range of securities and savings products that are supported by the firm's underwriting and research activities as well as clients' orders management and execution and clearing services for transactions originated by individual investors.

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10.

UBS global wealth management advisory operations in the Americas consists of U S and Canadian wealth management businesses, as well as international business booked in the U S UBS Wealth Management in the U S is an outgrowth of the former Paine Webber brokerage business.

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11.

UBS was named "Best Bank for Wealth Management in North America" at the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2017.

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12.

Products that this UBS division offers range from cash accounts, payments, savings and retirement plans to investment fund products, residential mortgages and advisory services.

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13.

UBS formed a new area of business named Real Estate and Private Markets by combining their Global Real Estate and Infrastructure and Private Equity businesses.

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14.

In June 2011, it was announced that UBS was considering moving its North American headquarters back to New York City, and that the bank was looking for office spaces in Midtown and in the rebuilt World Trade Center.

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15.

In 1917, UBS completed the construction of a new headquarters in Zurich on Bahnhofstrasse, considered to be the Wall Street of Switzerland.

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16.

Activities of the Union Bank of Switzerland during World War II were not publicly known until decades after the war, when it was demonstrated that UBS likely took active roles in trading stolen gold, securities, and other assets during World War II.

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17.

UBS confirmed that a large number of accounts had gone unclaimed as a result of the bank's policy of requiring death certificates from family members to claim the contents of the account.

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18.

UBS's handling of these revelations were largely criticized and the bank received significant negative attention in the U S UBS came under significant pressure, particularly from American politicians, to compensate Holocaust survivors who were making claims against the bank.

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19.

UBS opened branches and acquired a series of banks in Switzerland in the following years, growing from 31 offices in 1950 to 81 offices by the early 1960s.

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20.

UBS continues to issue gold bars via Argor-Heraeus which is famous for the unique kinebar holographic technology it uses to provide enhanced protection against bank gold bar counterfeiting.

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21.

Colloquially referred to as the "New UBS" to distinguish itself from the former Union Bank of Switzerland, the combined bank became the second largest in the world at the time, behind only the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

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22.

On 3 November 2000, UBS merged with Paine Webber, an American stock brokerage and asset management firm led by chairman and CEO Donald Marron.

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23.

Costas had followed a similar approach in building out the UBS fixed income business, hiring over 500 sales and trading personnel and increasing revenues from US$300 million in 1998 to over US$3 billion by 2001.

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24.

UBS was fined $100 million by the FED in 2004 for trading in dollars with Iran and other sanctioned countries.

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25.

At the beginning of 2007, UBS became the first Wall Street firm to announce a heavy loss in the subprime mortgage sector as the subprime mortgage crisis began to develop.

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26.

In May 2007, UBS announced the closure of its Dillon Read Capital Management division.

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27.

UBS cut its dividend in order to protect its traditionally high Tier 1 capital ratio, seen by investors as a key to its credibility as the world's largest wealth management company.

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28.

The Swiss National Bank and UBS made an agreement to transfer approximately US$60 billion of currently illiquid securities and various assets from UBS to a separate fund entity.

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29.

In November 2008, UBS put US$6 billion of equity into the new "bad bank" entity, keeping only an option to benefit if the value of its assets were to recover.

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30.

On 15 September 2011, UBS became aware of a massive loss, originally estimated at US$2 billion, allegedly due to unauthorized trading by Kweku Adoboli, a then 31-year-old Ghanaian trader on the Delta One desk of the firm's investment bank.

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31.

UBS announced that the investment bank would focus on its traditional strengths and exit much of its fixed income trading business that was not economically profitable.

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32.

On 6 January 2014, it was reported that UBS had become the largest private banker in the world, with $1.

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33.

In May 2015, media reports revealed UBS is planning to sell its Australian private banking division to some of its management after a review of underperforming businesses was conducted at the company.

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34.

UBS announced in January 2018 that it does not trade or expose clients to cryptocurrencies as it believes they have little to no elasticity, and are speculatively valued.

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35.

In July 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, UBS announced it would continue to allow for flextime and remote work by many employees, noting that they did not impede productivity.

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36.

UBS expects to accelerate its growth in the US with the purchase, and will operate Wealthfront as a business within UBS Global Wealth Management.

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37.

UBS frequently cites Swiss culture—specifically its penchant for privacy, security and neutrality—as foundational to its company culture.

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38.

UBS, then known as the Swiss Bank Corporation, received large influxes of capital from Europe for safe keeping during the war.

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39.

UBS was the largest wealth manager in 23 of the top 25 countries on the 2018 Financial Secrecy Index.

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40.

UBS employees are prohibited from discussing client activity or information publicly, sharing information across borders, retaining client information insecurely and required to maintain robust bank-client confidentiality agreements.

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41.

In July 2013, UBS established a gold storage facility and depository in Singapore for high net worth and ultra high net worth clients in their Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia markets who are willing to pay high fees and commissions for the highest level of secrecy and safety for their assets.

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42.

Strict banking secrecy policies and bank-client confidentiality agreements at UBS have frequently been used to avoid, evade or otherwise escape foreign direct taxation.

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43.

UBS reached multilateral agreements with the U S Internal Revenue Service and U K HM Revenue and Customs in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

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44.

Banking privacy policies of UBS have led to numerous controversies and disagreements with foreign governments:.

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45.

In December 2021, UBS was criminally convicted by an appeals court in France for “illegal banking activities”, money laundering and “aggravated tax fraud” and fined €1.

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46.

In January 2010, UBS issued a new code of conduct and business ethics which all employees were encouraged to sign.

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47.

In October 2019, UBS joined UN's Global Investors for Sustainable Development Alliance .

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48.

UBS has committed to raise US$5 billion of SDG-related impact investments by the end of 2021, which aim to create a measurable positive social or environmental impact.

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49.

UBS has been an early adopter regarding the use of blockchain technology in financial services.

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50.

In 2018, UBS digitally cloned Daniel Kalt, one of its chief economists.

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51.

In 2006, for the fourth consecutive year, UBS was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers living in the U S by Working Mother magazine.

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52.

UBS was included on Business Weeks The Best Places to Launch a Career 2008, and ranked No 96 out of the 119 total companies listed.

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53.

On 2 February 2010, UBS topped the charts for the ninth year in a row in Institutional Investor's annual ranking of Europe's most highly regarded equity analysts.

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54.

UBS was named as the number one leading pan-European brokerage firm for economics and strategy research.

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55.

UBS was named in the category Global Winners as Best Private Bank in the World 2017, and in the list of global best banks 2017, the Group received the award as Global Winner in the category World's Best Investment Banks 2017.

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56.

In 2019, UBS was listed as one of the Top 50 World's Most Attractive Employers Global Business Ranking 2019 by Universum Global Survey.

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57.

UBS is particularly active in sponsoring various golf tournaments, cross-country skiing in Switzerland, ice hockey, and a range of other events around the world.

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58.

UBS was the sponsor of the Alinghi sailing ship, winner of the Americas Cup in 2003.

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59.

UBS has been or currently is a sponsor of the following sporting events and organizations:.

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60.

UBS supported the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative in which the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation identified and worked with artists, curators and educators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa to expand their reach in the international art world and challenge the Western-centric view of art history.

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61.

UBS has previously been or currently is a sponsor of the following cultural events and organizations:.

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62.

UBS currently holds the naming rights to UBS Arena which is the home of the New York Islanders.

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