UBS Joins Layoff Tide, To Cut Staff By Up To 30% After Credit Suisse Merger

UBS Group AG has reportedly planned to cut its current workforce by up to 30%, which translates to approximately 36,000 positions worldwide, after completing its takeover of troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse.

The company plans on laying off around 11,000 employees in Switzerland, according to Swiss daily SonntagsZeitung. The two lenders jointly employed over 120,000 people at the end of 2022, including 30% of the total workforce in Switzerland.

While UBS said it will soon provide better clarity on the layoffs, the latest cutback surpasses the 9,000 layoffs announced by Credit Suisse before it was rescued by the Swiss investment bank last month.

Some of the investment bankers and wealth managers are expected to be poached by firms like Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase. Headhunters are already being chased by Credit Suisse bankers seeking new jobs, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

UBS and Credit Suisse have not responded to International Business Times' request for comments on the layoffs.

Earlier this week, Credit Suisse's chairman apologized to the shareholders for bringing the 167-year-old lender to the brink of bankruptcy.

"I am truly sorry," Axel Lehmann said, addressing the final meeting of shareholders Tuesday. "I apologize that we were no longer able to stem the loss of trust."

After years of scandals, Credit Suisse reached the breakpoint before the Swiss government turned to UBS, which agreed to buy the troubled financial services firm with a $3.3 billion (3 billion Swiss francs) shotgun merger.

The move angered several shareholders and account holders in Switzerland. During the Tuesday meeting, multiple shareholders expressed their dissatisfaction with the merger between the two banks.

The shareholders also lashed out at the board of directors and former management, including advisory firm Ethos, which denounced the "greed and incompetence of the bank's managers."

"Shareholders have lost considerable amounts of money and thousands of jobs are on the line," the firm said.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, one of the world's biggest Credit Suisse investors, also affirmed to vote against the re-election of Lehmann and six other directors in a sign of protest against the chairman.

Meanwhile, UBS Group is seeking to reassure its shareholders that it can make the takeover of the rival bank work. The multinational investment bank reported a net profit of $7.6 billion for 2022, along with strong inflows in wealth management. UBS is now working on navigating the Herculean challenge of integrating Credit Suisse.

The tide of layoffs that began last year is being seen as the worst in over a decade, with more than 52,000 jobs lost in just the first week of January alone. Nearly 538,000 people have lost their jobs in multiple sectors across the U.S. since October 2022, according to Bloomberg data. The tech sector has witnessed some of the biggest job losses, resulting in almost a third of the total cuts.