Following its difficulties at the beginning of the year, analysts criticized the performance of UBS’ investment bank. Sergio Ermotti says the crew is doing a «fantastic» job.
When the chief executive of UBS in spring commented on the first months of the year, he was less than chuffed – he hardly ever had seen such a bad start to a year, Sergio Ermotti said at a conference. The investment bank, in particular, had had some turbulent months to deal with and it was the second such quarter after the difficult end of 2018.
Now, things are looking up, even though the situation remains «fragile», he said according to a report by «Reuters»: «If I look at March, April and May the situation has clearly stabilized and improved, although from a very low base,» Ermotti said at the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Paris on Thursday.
«Fantastic Job»
The performance of the investment bank in 2019 was comparable to the one of similar divisions at other companies, Ermotti added. It was wrong to say that the investment bank had suffered under the departure of Andrea Orcel, who had led the investment bank since 2012.
Rob Karofsky and Piero Novelli, Orcel’s successors, were doing a «fantastic» job, he said. His strategy for the bank has been in for some criticism recently, with the «Financial Times» (behind paywall) attributing the perceived bad performance of the bank to the new management.
