The lab, which is based in a traditionally blue-collar area on the outskirts of Zurich, is now down to five employees, one person familiar with the team said. UBS didn’t cut jobs, and departure terms were relatively generous (most of the unit’s employees are under 40, and easily found new employment).
Wider Tech Changes
UBS' weakening of the wealth lab comes alongside changes in its wider tech efforts under information boss Mike Dargan: the former Standard Chartered banker poached Deutsche Banker Elly Hardwick (pictured below) earlier this year, divvying up a key tech role between her and Rick Carey.
Overall, the bank is putting the kibosh on free-wheeling innovation and tech discovery, by ring-fencing into clear structures. A spokesman for the bank said UBS its divisions increasingly partner, and that it focuses the bulk of its spending on innovation which can produce results within five years.
«That’s why in global wealth management we merged the innovation and the digital teams to get more synergies and impact in driving the best ideas,» UBS said.
Trouble Converting
The goal of the more grounded approach is to tackle projects with a tangible benefit for the bank. Initial results have been mixed, according to one UBS «innovator».
«UBS has had trouble converting the experiments into commercial products – except we.trade and the utility settlement coin,» this person said. We.trade is a trading platform based on smart contracts, and maintained by a consortium of banks. The coin is a four-year-old digital currency project backed by roughly one dozen banks.
The changes underscore the difficulty for huge banks like UBS, which traces its roots back to the 19th century, in adapting their culture and structure to the new digital realities gripping the industry.
Fighting for Mandates
The wealth lab was left fighting for «mandates,» or jobs, as the wider unit grappled with the aftershock of last year’s megamerger. The decision to ramp down was conveyed by Reto Wangler, who won the operating chief job over Dirk Klee in the shake-up last year.
To be sure, the world’s largest wealth manager by assets is still pouring money into innovation: it recently opened a so-called digital factory at its Swiss business. Ironically, the wealth lab now hunts for mandates from this separate innovation set-up, according to one person familiar with the matter.
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