CorpDigest
UBS Group AG
Leadership History
5 leaders · Full leadership timeline
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
UBS paid CHF 3 billion for Credit Suisse in a single weekend in March 2023 — an emergency acquisition brokered by the Swiss government after Credit Suisse's liquidity position deteriorated to the point where a collapse would have created systemic financial risk. The price implied roughly zero value for a bank with over one trillion dollars in assets. That transaction instantly made UBS the world's largest private bank, with $6.99 trillion in assets under management as of fiscal 2025. The integration cost is substantial. UBS reported $5.05 billion in net integration-related expenses in fiscal 2025, distributed across all four business divisions and group items. Those costs reduced a business generating $47.69 billion in total revenue to $3.54 billion in net income — a 7.4% net margin that reflects the integration overhead rather than the underlying earnings power of the combined operation once Credit Suisse's legacy exposures are resolved and the cost structure is rationalized. FINMA ordered the write-down of $17.2 billion in Credit Suisse AT1 bonds to zero on March 19, 2023, the largest AT1 writedown in financial history. The write-down was controversial because AT1 bonds typically sit above equity in the capital structure and were written down while equity holders received some consideration. Legal challenges from AT1 bondholders are ongoing in multiple jurisdictions and represent an unquantified contingent liability. The $155 billion market capitalization against $47.69 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue prices UBS at approximately 3.3 times revenue — consistent with global wealth management peers. The recurring net fee income, which grew 13% year-over-year in fiscal 2025 as markets appreciated and clients added assets, is the most valuable component of UBS's revenue mix: it persists regardless of trading activity, client withdrawals, or market volatility, and it scales automatically as assets under management grow.
CEO (1998-2001), Chairman (2001-2008)
Architect of the 1998 UBS-SBC merger and the aggressive expansion strategy including the $12 billion PaineWebber acquisition. Ospel transformed UBS into a global banking giant but also presided over the risk-taking culture that led to $37.5 billion in subprime losses. He resigned in 2008 following the government bailout.
CEO (2009-2011)
Grübel stabilized UBS after the 2008 crisis and restored profitability, but his tenure was cut short by the $2.3 billion Kweku Adoboli unauthorized trading scandal in September 2011. He resigned nine days after the loss was discovered, taking responsibility for the risk management failures.
CEO (2011-2020, 2023-present)
Ermotti's first tenure transformed UBS by eliminating 10,000 jobs, exiting fixed-income trading, and focusing on wealth management. He drove the CET1 ratio from 9.8% to 13.5% and made UBS the world's largest private bank. He returned in April 2023 for a second tenure specifically to manage the Credit Suisse integration, earning CHF 14.9 million in FY2024 compensation.
CEO (2020-2023)
Hamers brought a digital banking focus from his previous role at ING Group, but his tenure was overshadowed by the Credit Suisse crisis. He was replaced by Ermotti in April 2023 when the board determined that Ermotti's experience was needed for the integration.
Chairman (2022-present)
Kelleher, former Morgan Stanley president, became UBS chairman in April 2022. He led the board's decision to bring back Ermotti as CEO for the Credit Suisse integration and has overseen the bank's strategy of aggressive cost reduction and selective asset harvesting.
This decision triggered a global reassessment of AT1 bond valuations and drew legal challenges from bondholders across multiple jurisdictions. The competitive threat from fintech and digital wealth managers like Betterment, Wealthfront, and Robinhood is limited in the ultra-high-net-worth segment where UBS operates, but these platforms are gradually moving upmarket and could eventually challenge UBS's affluent client tier. The competitive dynamics in Swiss retail banking have been fundamentally altered by the Credit Suisse acquisition: where UBS and Credit Suisse previously competed for the same clients, UBS now faces a market where it is the clear dominant player, with Zürcher Kantonalbank and Raiffeisen as the main challengers. The bank's technology integration is also a significant challenge: UBS and Credit Suisse operated on incompatible core banking systems, and the migration of Credit Suisse's clients to UBS platforms is a multi-year project that risks service disruptions and client dissatisfaction.
The Swiss government's CHF 9 billion loss protection guarantee, while providing downside protection, also creates political risk — if UBS incurs losses that trigger the guarantee, the bank could face demands for operational concessions or forced divestitures. The integration of Credit Suisse's compliance and risk management frameworks is particularly challenging given Credit Suisse's history of regulatory failures, and UBS may discover additional compliance issues as it digs deeper into Credit Suisse's operations. In the Americas, UBS is the second-largest wealth manager by assets under management, with a financial advisor force that has been relatively stable through the integration, though retention remains a key risk. This capital strength allows UBS to absorb integration costs and regulatory penalties without threatening solvency.
UBS has had eight CEOs since the 1998 merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation. Mathis Cabiallavetta served briefly in 1998 before being replaced after Long-Term Capital Management losses. Marcel Ospel was president and CEO from 1998 to 2001 before transitioning to chairman, where he served until 2008. Peter Wuffli was CEO from 2003 to 2007, ousted as subprime exposure mounted. Marcel Rohner served from 2007 to 2009 through the worst of the financial crisis. Oswald Grübel, brought out of retirement after leading Credit Suisse, served from February 2009 to September 2011 and resigned after the Kweku Adoboli rogue trader scandal. Sergio Ermotti was appointed interim CEO in September 2011 and confirmed permanently in November 2011, serving until October 2020 when he was replaced by Ralph Hamers, formerly CEO of ING Group. Hamers led UBS from November 2020 until April 2023, when the UBS board recalled Sergio Ermotti to lead the Credit Suisse integration. Ermotti began his second term as CEO on April 5, 2023 and remains in the role through 2025, an unusual rehiring driven by the complexity and risk of absorbing Credit Suisse.
Sergio Ermotti, born May 11, 1960 in Lugano, Switzerland, started his banking career at age 15 as an apprentice at Cornèr Banca before joining Merrill Lynch in 1985. He spent 17 years at Merrill Lynch in equity derivatives, rose to lead European equity derivatives, then joined UniCredit in 2005 where he became deputy CEO. Ermotti was named UBS interim CEO on September 24, 2011 after Oswald Grübel resigned over the Adoboli scandal, then confirmed permanent CEO in November 2011. Over his first tenure from 2011 to 2020 he restructured the investment bank, cut 10,000 jobs, refocused UBS on wealth management, and rebuilt the share price from CHF 10 to CHF 12 range. He stepped down in November 2020 after a planned succession to Ralph Hamers. When Credit Suisse failed in March 2023, the UBS board concluded that integrating a complex troubled institution required Swiss banking experience and crisis credibility that Hamers lacked. Ermotti was re-appointed CEO effective April 5, 2023 with a clear mandate to deliver the Credit Suisse integration. His re-appointment was endorsed by Chairman Colm Kelleher, who had taken the chairman role in April 2022.
Ralph Hamers, the Dutch banker who had led ING Group from 2013 to 2020, joined UBS as CEO on November 1, 2020 succeeding Sergio Ermotti. Hamers was brought in to digitize UBS, accelerate technology investment, and modernize the wealth management business after Ermotti's restructuring phase. He oversaw the planned Wealthfront acquisition for $1.4 billion announced in January 2022, which was later terminated, and the strategic technology partnerships across cloud and digital advisory tools. The March 2023 Credit Suisse crisis fundamentally changed the leadership requirements at UBS. Integrating a CHF 575 billion balance sheet competitor with deeply troubled risk culture, legacy investment banking exposures, and complex Swiss political sensitivities required a leader with deep Swiss banking experience, crisis credibility, and proven ability to restructure investment banks. The UBS board determined Hamers, a payments and retail banking specialist, was not the right profile and announced on March 29, 2023, just ten days after the Credit Suisse rescue, that Sergio Ermotti would return as CEO effective April 5, 2023. Hamers stepped down amicably and the board cited the magnitude of the integration challenge rather than performance concerns.
Sergio Ermotti's compensation for his second tenure as UBS CEO has drawn intense scrutiny because of the bank's Swiss government-backed Credit Suisse rescue. For 2023, covering the period from his April 5 return through year-end, Ermotti received total compensation of CHF 14.4 million, including base salary, performance awards, and stock grants. For 2024, his first full year back, the UBS compensation report disclosed total compensation of CHF 14.9 million, similar to the 2023 partial year because his 2023 grant covered a partial year at full annual rates. The package made him the highest-paid Swiss banker for 2023 and 2024 and the highest-paid major European bank CEO. Swiss politicians criticized the level given UBS received Swiss National Bank and government backstops during the Credit Suisse acquisition, although those facilities were unused or returned by mid-2023. UBS has defended the pay as proportionate to the integration complexity, the size of the combined bank, and the precedent of competitive packages at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs. The Swiss Federal Council subsequently tightened rules for systemically important bank compensation, though the changes do not retroactively affect Ermotti's package.