Only recently UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti questioned the value of Switzerland to the country’s biggest bank. Now he seems to be back peddling, and wants to emphasize UBS’s «Swissness».

About six months ago Sergio Ermotti warned that UBS could withdraw from the Alpine country. Now he’s fulsome in his praise for the bank’s Swiss home base. On Thursday he told «Bloomberg» that being Swiss was a plus when dealing with super wealthy clients.

«Swissness» is something that is valued by clients, and should help UBS maintain its position as the world’s largest asset manager, the Italian-speaking Ermotti added. «I hope we will remain a global bank well anchored in Switzerland», he said.

Nordea as a model

Ermotti seems to be distancing himself from previous suggestions, in the knowledge that they were controversial at the time. In October Ermotti stressed he couldn’t guarantee UBS’s continued presence in Switzerland, as finews.com also reported.

According to Ermotti it was the increased banking regulations that could threaten UBS’s continued presence in Switzerland. He alluded to the decision by Sweden’s Nordea Bank, to move its headquarters from Stockholm to Helsinki, in Finland. The Swedish bank’s move meant it evaded the tougher regulation, thus saving millions in costs.

At the time he also noted that UBS is no longer under Swiss investor control, and so he couldn’t exclude the possibility its headquartering in Switzerland would come under threat.

Focus on Asia and the USA

Maintaining its Swiss base won’t affect its –and other banks- focus on foreign, and especially Asian, markets. Ermotti will be looking for exponential growth there, particularly in China, in the coming decade, according to the report.

UBS manages assets in Asia worth more than 380 billion dollars making it the market leader among foreign banks.

Ermotti also sees growth potential in the USA, where it currently manages client monies worth around 1.2 billion dollars. The fusion of Wealth Management and Wealth Management Americas into a global asset management business needs to be seen against this background. The new division will be led by UBS Americas head Tom Naratil together with Martin Blessing, boss of UBS Wealth Management.

Revisiting the Superbank

Ermotti again raised with «Bloomberg» the issue of something which many had thought was dead and buried, namely the Superbank. Swiss banks should cooperate more closely to lower costs for back-office services, according to Ermotti. He added that the financial sector service provider SIX could play a key role in this field.

His suggestion comes as SIX tackles a strategic restructuring under a new leadership team, and after Ermotti expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of former SIX boss Urs Rüegsegger, and his failure to complete the «Superbank» project, which envisaged transferring back-office services from UBS and Credit Suisse to the SIX group.

Rüegsegger backed the idea at the time, but the project was later abandoned.