UBS finance MDs are at a conference and some people are not happy
If you work in finance - or possibly any division - of UBS, these are not easy times. The Swiss bank is still integrating Credit Suisse and Credit Suisse's systems and aiming for $13bn of cost savings before the end of 2026. There are travel restrictions, restrictions on printer paper, restrictions on new hires, and there are job cuts. Times are tight.
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Some at UBS are therefore professing surprise that managing directors in UBS's global finance team have flown to Zurich this week for an internal leadership conference. "People flew in over the weekend, and they're there this entire week," says one US insider at the bank. "It seems crazy amidst all the cost constraints."
UBS declined to comment for this article. The contentious conference is understood to be taking place on Google's Zurich campus. Photographs seen by eFinancialCareers show Rachel Sledge, UBS's APAC CFO, Marc Nyffenegger, the CFO for Switzerland and Caroline Stewart, the CFO for the investment bank and the UK, wearing colourful clothes on stage beneath a sign proclaiming, "Finance as a growth enabler, strategies and insights."
Naysayers claim that the rarefied attendees are staying in some of Zurich's finest hotels, including Baur au Lac and the Dolder Grand. "It must be costing a fortune," observes one.
Maybe not. We understand that UBS's finance MDs are actually running their finance conference on the cheap. Fewer than 100 MDs are attending, and the majority are based in Zurich and sleeping in their own beds at night. The remainder are staying at a Citizen M hotel in Zurich's old town. Google is understood to have provided its campus for free.
The conference only runs for a day and a half to allow for discussion of such things as the integration of Credit Suisse. After that, MDs who've flown in will stay in the city and work with their Swiss colleagues. It's not exactly a holiday, although it may seem that way if you're in New York trying to save on printer paper.
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Photo by Ilia Bronskiy on Unsplash
