Switzerland’s largest bank UBS has so far weathered multiple first quarter headwinds, turning its best quarterly net profit in over a decade.
UBS reported Tuesday a net profit of $2.1 billion in the first quarter, exceeding expectations, showing the bank was able to steer a course through several challenges in the first quarter and posted its best first quarterly results since 2007.
The result improved on the $1.3 billion reported for the fourth quarter of last year and was better than the $1.8 billion booked during the first three months of 2021.
Russia Exposure
Switzerland’s largest bank accomplished this in the face of the Ukraine war, inflation showing no signs of abating anytime soon, and central banks that are tightening the loose-money spigots. «Our strong results show that we are able to achieve our targets even in such a market environment,» said UBS CEO Ralph Hamers.
UBS said it reduced its Russia exposure «early and actively» and had a direct country exposure of $400 billion as of March 31 of 2022. It expects a firm-wide P&L negative impact of $100 million.
One Billion Dollars
Pre-tax profit was $2.7 billion, improving by one billion dollars from the fourth quarter result of $1.7 billion and bettering the $2.3 billion a year ago.
Earnings per share were $0.61 in the first quarter, up from $0.38 in the fourth quarter of last year and higher than the $0.49 reported during the first quarter of 2021, the results showed.
Wealth Management
Global wealth management (GWM) booked a pre-tax profit of $1.3 billion, with the unit reporting net new fee-generating assets of $19.4 billion in the first quarter compared to $36.2 billion in the same year-ago quarter.
Total fee-generating assets were $3.1 trillion as of the first quarter of last year.
