UBS, the investment banking giant has reportedly cut further jobs from its markets division, with many people internally fearing more jobs are to go, according to multiple sources.
Earlier this week the bank announced that it was cutting its Execution Hub business, an outsourced trading operation, with sources close to the business reporting that the unit was axed for “strategic reasons”, with trading now only to be conducted for high net worth clients, and not external clients.
The Trade broke the story noting that Ian Power, the head of Execution Hub in EMEA, had been let go despite the business having over 100 clients. One source reported that its clients had been given three months to finds a new outsourced trading provider.
David Berney, of Ergo Consultancy, a specialist in outsourced trading, reported that, “We understand that some existing outsourced trading clients will be offered services elsewhere within the UBS group, though details on these arrangements remain limited. UBS will continue to provide traditional external execution services for bank clients, many of which are smaller private and cantonal banks in Switzerland. This restructuring will result in approximately 12 job losses, with seven of those based in the UK/EU.”
Now more jobs have been cut in the credit space across product development and electronic trading teams.
Concern internally stems from the level of success that the bank had been reporting across business lines which are being targeted, making it hard to understand why certain roles are being cut.
On 4 February 2025, Todd Tuckner, chief financial officer told analysts on the firm’s earnings call, “Pre-tax profit of US$452 million was driven by strong revenue performance, up 37% year-on-year. Banking revenues increased by 19% to US$675 million with advisory up 36% and leveraged capital markets (LCM) which more than doubled its revenues the main drivers of growth. Regionally, we saw particular strength in the Americas up 33%. Markets revenues increased by 44% to US$1.9 billion with increased client activity on higher cash volumes and supportive volatility across equities and FX. This led to our best fourth quarter markets revenue on record with particular strength in financing supported by all-time high client balances.”
He also noted that the markets business saw 50% revenue growth in Americas and APAC with nearer 33% in EMEA, while operating expenses had fallen 4% on lower personnel costs.
A spokesperson for the firms said he was unable to comment on individual or numbers but noted, “We work towards cost targets, not headcount numbers. I would also stress that we continue to prioritise growth, evidenced by our Q4 2024 performance, where our Global Markets division recorded its highest quarterly market share gain for cash equities and the highest prime brokerage balances ever.”
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