ZURICH. UBS made a net profit of $2.7 billion in the third quarter, up 8 per cent on a year earlier and a shade under the $2.71 billion analysts had pencilled in. The bank also brought forward its share buyback. It will finish a $3 billion programme when it reports full-year figures in February 2027, months ahead of the mid-2027 date it gave in the summer. The capital rules still being written in Bern are the condition attached to every promise after that.
The figures, published in Zurich at 06:45 on Wednesday, are the ones a bank likes to lead with. Profit before tax was $3.6 billion, and $4.1 billion on the underlying basis UBS prefers. Return on core equity tier one capital was 14.8 per cent, and 16.7 per cent underlying. The cost-income ratio was 72.3 per cent, or 68.7 per cent underlying. The core equity tier one ratio stood at 14.7 per cent, the leverage ratio at 4.6 per cent, both above the bank’s own guides of about 14 per cent and more than 4 per cent. Diluted earnings were $0.85 a share.
Clients stayed, and the buyback moved
Global Wealth Management took in $55.1 billion of net new assets, with inflows in every region and the largest in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Commitments to its unified global alternatives reached a quarterly record of $12.5 billion. In Switzerland, Personal and Corporate Banking reported a 7 per cent growth rate in net new investment products and CHF 3.3 billion of net new loans. Across the quarter the bank granted or renewed about CHF 40 billion of loans to Swiss companies and households. Underlying revenue in Global Markets rose 17 per cent from a year earlier.
The buyback is the line shareholders will underline. UBS repurchased $1.8 billion of shares in the quarter. In July it had said a fresh $3 billion programme would be done by the end of the second quarter of 2027 at the latest. It now intends to complete that programme with the fourth-quarter results. It is also still accruing for a dividend increase in the mid-teens in percentage terms. Further repurchases stay conditional on results, on keeping the capital ratio around 14 per cent, and on what parliament does next. The bank expects to end 2026 at or very close to that 14 per cent target, including a possible accrual for the first slice of buybacks in 2027.
Credit Suisse, nearly off the systems
The integration is on track to be substantially complete by the end of the year, the bank said. Nearly all the legacy applications in scope are no longer in use, and about 90 per cent have been fully decommissioned. Gross cost savings in the quarter were another $0.6 billion. The cumulative total is $13.2 billion, and UBS now expects about $13.7 billion by the end of 2026, above the earlier ambition of about $13.5 billion. For the first nine months, underlying return on capital was 16.7 per cent and the underlying cost-income ratio was 69.6 per cent, which is the exit-rate territory the bank said it wanted.
The outlook for the fourth quarter is the ordinary seasonal one: fewer transactions, no drama promised. A strategy and targets update comes with the February results. Until then the bank has declined to say whether the buyback that follows the current $3 billion will be larger.
Bern still sets the ceiling
None of this retires the argument over how much capital the foreign subsidiaries must carry. The Council of States last month backed the government’s harder line and rejected a compromise the bank had hoped for. The National Council’s economics committee is still hearing the file, with a 75 per cent idea in circulation between the bank’s preference for 50 and Bern’s demand for 100. A bill is expected to reach the lower house in December. UBS says it wants a result that protects financial stability without undue cost to shareholders, clients and staff, and that it remains committed to a global franchise run from Switzerland.
Sergio Ermotti told analysts that being a bank with “a DNA of Swissness”, rooted in Switzerland, is a big advantage, “but it’s not the reason why our clients are banking with us.” He also said the bank is in no rush to redraw its footprint, because any new rule will take time to come into force. The chairman has been blunter in recent weeks, warning that a regime the bank considers too harsh would force a hard look at its future in the country. People close to the leadership had already described the options as holding the capital, shrinking abroad, or leaving. Wednesday’s profit does not close that list. It pays for a faster buyback while the list is still open. On Thursday morning the shares were about 1 per cent higher, near CHF 39.