UBS and Deutsche Bank were working on a plan to combine Switzerland’s and Germany’s biggest banks to take the U.S. giants head-on. It came to nothing.
Combining two of Europe’s biggest banks to rival the successful banks of the U.S. – the leaders of UBS and Deutsche Bank seem to have worked on such an option, according to a report in «The Wall Street Journal» (behind paywall).
Milan Meeting
The chief financial officers of the two banks met in Milan in June to discuss the potential merger of the investment banking divisions, according to the report. Under the terms discussed, UBS would have assumed the equity trading desk of Deutsche, which in turn would have received derivatives and bond transactions.
A merger of the two businesses was thought as a remedy against the unparalleled might of the U.S. industry in investment banking. The talks failed due to questions regarding the capitalization of the business and the structuring of the deal.
Second Such Project
In spring 2019, UBS and Deutsche had talked about a merger of their asset management units, as reported by finews.com. A project that foundered.
UBS seems not ready to risk a cross-boarder mega-merger with a company such as Deutsche, maybe because growth isn’t yet an overarching issue for the Zurich-based bank.
