First-quarter net profit at UBS came in at $3 billion for 2026, a figure that represented an 80% increase from the same period a year earlier, the company said. An LSEG-compiled consensus poll of analyst estimates had put the figure at $2.8 billion, meaning the bank came in ahead of expectations, CNBC reported.
Total reported revenues reached $14.2 billion for the quarter, up 13% year-over-year. The investment bank was the standout division, with reported revenues of $4.1 billion, up 27%.
Records were set across equities and foreign exchange, rates, and credit within the Global Markets trading arm, pushing its underlying revenues to $3.3 billion — a figure UBS described as an all-time high for that unit. Equity capital markets was a particularly strong performer, contributing to a 30% rise in underlying revenues for the advisory and capital markets unit.
Net new assets in Global Wealth Management totaled $37.4 billion, equivalent to annualized growth of 3.1%, with transaction-based income for the division up 17% compared with the year-ago period. The bank’s asset management unit added $14 billion in net new money.
Group invested assets stood at $6.9 trillion at the end of the quarter.
A target of $3 billion in total share repurchases is expected to be reached before second-quarter results are published, with $900 million of buybacks already completed in the first three months of the year, UBS said. Beyond that, further buybacks before year-end remain an objective, though the bank indicated that parliamentary progress on Swiss capital rules, along with broader financial conditions and sustaining an approximate 14% CET1 ratio, would factor into any such decision. At quarter-end, the CET1 ratio was 14.7%, compared with 14.4% three months earlier.
Looking ahead, UBS cautioned that net interest income in its Personal & Corporate Banking and Global Wealth Management businesses is unlikely to move materially from first-quarter levels.
CEO Sergio Ermotti said UBS had delivered “excellent financial results” and remains on track to meet its financial objectives for 2026. “We saw all our business delivering double-digit growth in profitability,” Ermotti told CNBC.
The strong quarterly results come as UBS faces a proposed overhaul of Swiss banking regulations. Under legislation recently advanced by the Swiss government, UBS’s foreign subsidiaries would need to be fully capitalized on a standalone basis — a requirement that analysts and the bank itself have estimated would translate into roughly $20 billion in additional core capital, Reuters reported. Combined with capital requirements stemming from its acquisition of Credit Suisse, the total additional CET1 capital requirement at the UBS AG standalone level would reach about $37 billion, UBS said.