UBS attracted $60 billion of new money in its Global Wealth Management unit in what was a difficult year. But provisions for a French legal case made quarterly results look better than they were.

The Global Wealth Management (GWM) business of UBS turned a pre-tax profit of $4.97 billion last year, up from $4.87 billion a year ago, helped by lower operating costs, according to results from Switzerland's largest bank Tuesday.

Quarterly results also improved with a pre-tax profit of $1.05 billion, up 88 percent from $563 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, although provisions for a legal case in France had an effect.

Litigation provisions for UBS overall were $740 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, of which $657 million fell on the GWM business, painting a more favorable result for the Swiss and EMEA regions within GWM, the results showed. 

EMEA and Switzerland

In its home market Switzerland, GWM reported a pre-tax profit of $172 million for the fourth quarter, up 29 percent from the last three months of 2021. Full-year profit was $817 million, representing a 9 percent increase over 2021's result. A different picture emerges when litigation provisions of $85 million are factored in. 

Excluding the favorable impact of the provisions, pre-tax profit was down 21 percent in the quarter and down two percent for the year for the Swiss business. 

In the EMEA region, quarterly profits were 3 percent lower when the provisions of $572 million were factored in. Annual results showed an 83 percent increase in net profits to $1.49 billion for 2022, which fell to an 8 percent increase with provisions excluded. 

The two regions also led in attracting net new fee-generating assets of $15.7 billion in the quarter and $29.4 billion for the year. In EMEA, $10.6 billion came in during the last quarter of the year, for an annual total of $20.3 billion, making it the top region for bringing in new money.

Switzerland GWM saw $9.1 billion of new money for the year, over half of which came in the fourth quarter. 

EMEA and Switzerland in particular were also the leanest in terms of spending with a cost/income ratio. For EMEA the ratio was 64.3 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 124.1 percent a year ago. In Switzerland, it fell to 59.8 percent, down from 71.2 percent. For the year overall, the respective ratios were 61.9 percent in EMEA and 55.2 percent in Switzerland. 

«In EMEA, we maintained our momentum with clients and targeted growth opportunities across Europe and the Middle East. In Switzerland, we remained the undisputed leader and finished the year with record loan and deposit volumes,» CEO Ralph Hamers said. 

The Americas

In the Americas, where UBS is banking on growth to drive its GWM business, the region turned a fourth-quarter profit of $375 million, down 20 percent from the year-ago period. For the year, it booked a profit of $1.748 billion before taxes, marking a 13 percent drop from 2021.

New fee-generating assets of $4.2 billion flowed into the region in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual total to $17.2 billion, and invested assets to $1.581 trillion, UBS said. 

 The cost/income ratio ticked higher to 85.9 percent from 83.1 percent, the highest among the regions, and 83.7 percent for the year.

Asia Pacific

UBS Global Wealth Management in the Asia Pacific region posted a pre-tax profit of $178 million in the fourth quarter, according to its latest financial results, down 8 percent compared to $193 million in the same period in 2021, as finews.asia reported.

New money totaled $13.7 for the year and $3.4 billion for the quarter for the region.