Sergio Ermotti: People do still believe that we will see some positive...

We have at least three good internal candidates, and if somebody leads our core business as co-chief, it's pretty clear that this person should have the potential, it's just going to depend on the needs of the bank at the time of the change.

Sergio Ermotti

money

The case will now be transferred to the Court of Appeals which will hear the trial again in full. This process is expected to take several years, the superficial nature of the verdict is astounding and does not even pretend to address the arguments we presented during the five weeks of the trial. This will need to be covered by the appeals court.

Sergio Ermotti

money

This makes us more efficient and allows us to further develop our offering. All this, of course, has a short-term effect on our results.

Sergio Ermotti

business

But we also want to continue to increase the returns for our shareholders. We want to pay out an ordinary dividend that increases by a middle to high single-digit percentage every year.

Sergio Ermotti

business

I think Frankfurt is a location of choice. There are different, other locations that could come into consideration, i think about Amsterdam, I think about Madrid ... As we speak, we are narrowing down really the options.

Sergio Ermotti

business

It's clear if I look at the cash balances as a percentage of wealth we manage, they have been coming down from the high-20s to around the mid-20s, so this is clearly a sign that people are willing to invest more, but still very cautious.

Sergio Ermotti

business

We and the industry are facing unprecedented headwinds, for example from interest rates, which have pressured net interest margins in all of our businesses and from macroeconomic and political uncertainties that have contributed to huge risk aversion among our clients, industry activity levels in investment banking advisory have slowed markedly year on year, and, while equity volumes in the US are buoyant, flat volumes in Europe and sharp declines in Asia do not favor our geographic mix.

Sergio Ermotti

business

We have to have a business model that can be a sustainable and acceptable one to both regulators and the other stakeholders, clients, and investors.

Sergio Ermotti

stakeholders model clients business

While government clearly plays the major role in fighting poverty through policies on things such as education, tax, and trade, business creates the wealth that matters.

Sergio Ermotti

poverty government business education

If I have to tell you what was and is my mission, I think UBS can be the Apple or IBM of the banking industry: companies that went from being admired to severe difficulties and to being back stronger than before.

Sergio Ermotti

difficulties back think you

Everything is always feasible if you run a corporate finance exercise: you can always try to come out with a justification on how things could work. But the real issue is to say how do you translate that into practice.

Sergio Ermotti

you finance practice work

Wealth management businesses are capital light businesses.

Sergio Ermotti

capital wealth light management

I don't think that the financial services industry and that banking in particular are any different than any other part of the economy, any other industry outside banking.

Sergio Ermotti

think banking financial different

Growth is what solves most of the big economic and social problems: poverty, government deficits, quality of life, rising healthcare and retirement costs.

Sergio Ermotti

quality growth government life

Businesses are among the first to see changes in the labor market, but few countries have the necessary close relationship between business and educators to ensure this information reaches the education system.

Sergio Ermotti

see business education relationship

Philanthropic funding can play a vital role in testing and stimulating innovation that, when proven, can be implemented at scale by business or government.

Sergio Ermotti

innovation government business play

Today's investors want to see a positive impact on society and the environment as well as solid financial returns.

Sergio Ermotti

see society positive today

Impact investment is an important business driver, and more importantly, it is a business driver because clients want it.

Sergio Ermotti

investment important business want

As a Swiss-Italian who has always worked for foreign banks, there was clearly an element of pride going back to my roots and working for the biggest bank in my country.

Sergio Ermotti

back pride roots country

Can a bank that is part of this society be sure that it has no bad apples? No, because, like in all other industries and companies, it's about people, and what you see is the reflection of the good and bad in society. So you employ people that you think are honest, but you have to manage them more and more with an eye towards missteps.

Sergio Ermotti

good you reflection people

People do still believe that we will see some positive news from the new administration, but the goodwill is eroding very fast and people want to see concrete actions before engaging in M&A, before engaging into major discussions in respect of strategic moves.