First UBS AGM since CS takeover – UBS shareholders approve of the remuneration report with almost 84 percent – News

  • The general meeting of the UBS shareholders took place on Wednesday: the compensation report, the CS integration and the sustainability report were discussed for around 4.5 hours.
  • UBS shareholders approved the remuneration report in an advisory vote with 83.5 percent.
  • All board members were re-elected with at least 97 percent of the vote.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti already sees “a lot of progress” in the integration of Credit Suisse into UBS. However, significant restructuring measures and optimizations are still needed before the major bank can fully exploit the advantages of the merger, said Ermotti on Wednesday at the general meeting in Basel.

The UBS boss emphasized that the integration was “a marathon, not a sprint.” The year 2024 will be a crucial year for the big bank. The most important priorities for the first half of the year include the merger of the two parent companies and the transfer of the US business into a single intermediate holding company.

Compensation report is accepted with 83.5 percent

After comments and criticism from shareholders, the remuneration report received approval of 83.5 percent at the meeting. Sergio Ermotti’s remuneration is therefore also approved. In March it was announced that the bank boss had earned 14.4 million francs in the nine months after taking over Credit Suisse.

“Clear sign”: assessment of the SRF business editor


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The clock shows 1:53 when the vote finally takes place. The UBS general meeting in Basel has been running since 10:30 a.m. Before the vote, the votes of the more or less angry shareholders revolved around the takeover of Credit Suisse, the mistakes in the past, sustainability and – above all and again and again – the remuneration of CEO Sergio Ermotti in the amount of 14.4 million francs. The shareholders have been voting on the remuneration report in a consultative manner since the law was amended following the adoption of the rip-off initiative. The result is therefore not binding, but it is a barometer of the mood. And that showed something today. While the annual report was approved with 99 percent and the sustainability report, which was also criticized (also consultative, non-binding), received 93 percent approval, the remuneration report was only around 84 percent. There have already been lower approval ratings at general meetings, but in the case of UBS it is a clear sign when 16 percent of the shareholders reject the remuneration report. Will that have an effect? It is highly doubtful that the top management at UBS will therefore be encouraged to change the culture in its remuneration practices. But 16 percent rejection has symbolic value.

Matthias Pfander

According to Board Chairman Colm Kelleher, Ermotti’s compensation was justified given the turbulent takeover of Credit Suisse. “The Board of Directors is honoring Ermotti’s outstanding performance in the most important year in UBS history. He has fulfilled probably the most difficult task in the industry.”

Legend:

The integration is “a marathon, not a sprint,” emphasized UBS boss Sergio Ermotti at the general meeting in Basel.

Keystone / GEORGIOS KEFALAS

In an advisory vote, shareholders also approved the bank’s sustainability report with a yes vote of 93.4 percent. In his vote, Chairman of the Board of Directors Kelleher referred to what he believes are the bank’s ambitious sustainability goals.

UBS wants to close 85 bank branches after the takeover


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On March 19, 2023, UBS will take over the major bank Credit Suisse. Since then, the merger has been taking place in partial steps. In March 2024 it became known that UBS wanted to close 85 CS branches. Locations where UBS and CS branches are directly next to each other are affected.

These are the locations Mendrisio in southern Ticino, Delémont in the canton of Jura, Rheinfelden and Frick in the canton of Aargau and Grenchen in Solothurn. UBS says it wants to gain “experience” from these five branches. Between July and September 2024, another “around 20 locations will be consolidated,” according to UBS.

In his speech, the UBS CEO criticized the argument that UBS had an implicit state guarantee as “factually incorrect”. He referred to UBS’s loss-absorbing capital totaling around $200 billion. “UBS’s risks are borne by shareholders, and by holders of AT1 instruments and loss-absorbing TLAC bonds – not by taxpayers.”

According to Kelleher, UBS is not “too big to fail”

At the meeting, UBS President Colm Kelleher once again spoke out against additional capital requirements for the big bank. According to the text of his speech, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the major Swiss bank said that he was “seriously concerned” about some of the discussions in connection with additional capital requirements. “The capital requirements for globally systemically important banks have increased significantly over the past 15 years,” emphasized Kelleher. In his opinion, UBS is also not “too big to fail”.

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