UBS is getting out of fund administration entirely. In a statement on Tuesday, the Swiss bank said it has transferred the inherited Credit Suisse fund administration operation to Northern Trust and extended its partnership with the US firm. UBS added it "will exit the fund administration business" as a result.
The transaction is expected to complete in the second quarter of next year. UBS said the shift of services will be "carefully managed in a phased approach over a period of two years," a timeline meant to keep the switchover steady for clients.
Divestitures are how a bank finishes digesting an acquisition it never planned. Market Briefs covers European banking free every weekday.
This is another cleanup move tied to the Credit Suisse rescue that Swiss authorities engineered in early 2023. UBS says the long integration remains on track to wrap up by the end of this year. The bank has been down this road before: in 2017, UBS Asset Management transferred its traditional fund administration operations in Switzerland and Luxembourg to Northern Trust and signed a long-term servicing agreement.
UBS is working to persuade Switzerland not to introduce hefty new capital requirements tied to its enlarged footprint after the Credit Suisse deal. A recent vote in the upper house of parliament made that push harder, and the lower house is next up to debate it. For your wallet, the headline is simple: when big banks change what they keep in house versus outsource, the ripple effects can show up later in pricing and service, even if the shifts seem wonky today.
What UBS keeps and what it sells tells you its real strategy. Join Market Briefs free and watch the cleanup.
