UBS Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti had launched his idea of a superbank some years ago. To no avail, at least so far. But in one specific area of banking, the Swiss giant has had some success in selling its expertise to rival companies.

 

The idea of a closer cooperation between Switzerland’s banks to generate economies of scale and to help them focus on their core business has become something of an evergreen.

But even though both UBS boss Sergio Ermotti, ex-CEO of SIX, Urs Rueegsegger, and Tidjane Thiam at Credit Suisse all seemed to back the idea in principal, it has come to nothing so far. The general presumption is that distrust between arch-rivals is making it impossible that such an project will ever see the light of day.

Pipeline of Contracts

In a specific area of its business, UBS has been more successful in getting rival firms to sign up for certain services: UBS Partner, a platform designed to check on client portfolios on a daily basis, is already in use at two banks and three more have signed an agreement, the Swiss No. 1 recently said. Others are likely to follow suit, the bank suggested.

«We have to be realistic,» said William Kennedy, head of distribution at UBS asset management and in charge of UBS Partner. «As a bank, we will never have all the clients of this world.»

Completely Independent

The product was originally developed in the wealth management division of UBS, with the help of its veteran banker Kennedy. In wealth management, the daily portfolio analysis is part of UBS Advice.

«We are operating completely independently from UBS,» said Tanja von Ehrlich at an event that was sponsored by Microsoft. The economist is head of business development at UBS Partner.

Robot or Human Work

A team of eight had started work on UBS Partner in 2016 and had won Banca Generali as a first client later that year. Today, the unit has some 60 members of staff.

The banks that sign up to UBS Partner hope the tool helps their relationship managers dedicate more time to their contacts with clients. The «robot» is taking charge of tasks that humans will find daunting given the enormous amount of data available.

U.S. Growth Targeted

UBS has sent von Ehrlich to San Francisco in a bid to generate more growth for the tool. She will try and convince U.S. banks to have their client portfolios vetted by the UBS robot for unwelcome risks.