Swiss bank UBS smashes third-quarter expectations with $1.4 billion in profit

Swiss banking titan UBS on Wednesday posted a large profit beat, after completing its first wave of client migrations following its integration of collapsed domestic rival Credit Suisse.

Net profit attributable to shareholders came in at $1.43 billion, compared with a mean forecast of $667.5 million in a LSEG poll of analysts.

Group revenue was $12.33 billion, above analyst expectations near $11.78 billion.
Other third-quarter highlights included:

The lender said it expects to complete its planned $1 billion share buyback program in the fourth quarter and intends to continue repurchases in 2025.

UBS shares were up 2.4% at 08:33 a.m. London time.

"We started to see the benefits of our diversified business model, our global reach," CEO Sergio Ermotti told CNBC's Annette Weisbach on Wednesday of the bank's forecast-beating third-quarter results. "We are also [in] a market environment that was challenging but also offered opportunities for investors to position themselves. So I think it's a good mix of factors."

UBS' Investment Banking division shone in the third quarter, with the branch's net income up 36% year-on-year, largely due to performance in equity derivatives, foreign exchange and rate revenues. The bank also noted an increase in Global Banking.

Global Wealth Management, meanwhile, shed 6% year-over-year, as a result of lower deposit margins and weaker loan revenues, following softer average volumes.

UBS turned course back toward profit in the first quarter of 2024 after two quarterly losses tied to the takeover of stricken Credit Suisse — an intensive, now completed process mired in OECD warnings over "new risks and challenges" posed to the broader Swiss economy and governmental concerns about the capital requirements of