UBS's junior banker job cuts seem to be standard annual pruning
While UBS chairman Colm Kelleher has been speaking at the Swiss bank's annual general meeting today, UBS's junior bankers in the US have been taking to message boards to complain about a sudden pruning of their numbers.
UBS declined to comment on the claims. The complaints suggest that junior UBS bankers at associate level in teams like healthcare and real estate have been impacted by job cuts, which are thought to have taken place this week.
Despite the furore, it's not thought that the cuts are related to UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse. Although the merging of the two banks is expected to generate over 30,000 layoffs in what Kelleher suggested today would be a four-year period, it's too early for any integration-related layoffs to take place. Instead, the elimination of some junior banking jobs at the Swiss bank seems to be related to the annual post-bonus pursuit of efficiencies.
Dealogic said yesterday that investment banking fees fell 38% year-on-year in America and 34% year-on-year in Europe in the first quarter of 2023. UBS ranked outside the top 10 for investment banking revenues globally, but came 10th in Europe.
UBS's US bankers should nonetheless be comparatively immune to any cost-cutting. When the deal with Credit Suisse was announced, UBS welcomed the opportunity it provided to grow its team of US dealmakers. At the time, healthcare and technology were cited as areas of particular focus, although some UBS healthcare juniors will seemingly be wondering about that today.
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