UBS Earnings: Garage Sale of Non-Core Assets Is Star of the Show

A year after UBS Group AG completed its emergency takeover of ailing rival Credit Suisse, the project is doing better than the Swiss bank had dared to expect, shedding unwanted assets, people and costs faster than it had promised — allowing it to post profits that beat forecasts so far in 2024.

The good news is tempered by the ongoing threat of higher capital demands from Swiss authorities and the bank’s need to show it can be as effective at combining operations in its core property and banking businesses as it is at shedding non-core assets. It also needs to continue to boost fee income to counter the effects of falling interest rates on loan revenues. The capital side should at least be much clearer by early next year, UBS said on a second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday.