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UBS: Wealth Management BACHELOR THESIS (CASE STUDY) UBS: THE WAY TO BECOMING A GLOBAL PLAYER IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT "On which critical foundational factors are UBS and its leadership in Wealth Management built and with which major event is the current UBS crisis to be explained?" AUTHOR: ALAIN NTJAM OLTEN, AUGUST 9, 2013 SUPERVISOR: DR. KONDOVA GALIA INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT Alain Ntjam August 2013 1 UBS: Wealth Management Abstract Purpose: The objective of this bachelor thesis is to analyze in a case study manner, how the big Swiss bank UBS evolved and became a global player in wealth management. The guiding research question is: ‘On which critical foundational factors is UBS and its leadership in wealth management built, and with through which major event can the current UBS crisis be explained? Methodology and approach: The first analytical tool of this paper is the PEST analysis that aims to find out which environmental condition in the 1990s facilitated the UBS merger and how it came to the merger. The motives for its direction of growth will be analyzed to understand the bank's strategic intent in regards to wealth management and the bank's growth path. The next chapter seeks to understand the corporate ‘one firm strategy’ of UBS, how it relates to its organizational chart and which role the North American wealth management market plays within the organization. Further a comparison to Credit Suisse is made. The last chapter within the main part of the thesis attempts to sort out the significant activities of the value chain which creates or adds wealth management value for clients. Part of this chapter is as well a look into the subsidiaries' wealth management strategies, their global presence and the global market position UBS has at the publication of this paper Findings: UBS merger happened due to one big bank not being able to adapt early to its seemingly friendly business environment. The organizational structure that UBS inherited from SBC brought many advantages for its wealth management business. The differentiation strategy called the one firm strategy, the value chain and the overall organization of the group were some of the critical factors for UBS to become a major wealth management business. Research limitations and implications: Formerly, a chapter devoted to the investigation of the financial crisis was planned. The supervisor of the paper and later on the author came to the conclusion that, the paper would be too long and loose its quality. An extended research into this topic was therefore not pursued. However, a more complete picture would be achieved by research work that reaches beyond the scope of this bachelor degree thesis. Alain Ntjam August 2013 2 UBS: Wealth Management Alain Ntjam August 2013 3 UBS: Wealth Management I. Introductory Part Alain Ntjam August 2013 4 UBS: Wealth Management Acknowledgement This writing of this paper is not only the accomplishment of the author, but as well of those who have supported him to reach this stage of life: A special thanks goes to: parents, siblings, the extended family, lecturers friends, comrades and the exchange students. Further the author wants to express his utmost gratitude to Dr. Galia Kondova and Matthias Härri who have supervised the development of this bachelor thesis. The authors would also like to express his special thanks to the member of the FHNW internal institute of finance. Without their lessons and the theoretical input over the years, the realization of this bachelor thesis would have been much more difficult Last but not least, the author owes a sincere thanks to the International Management program and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. It is on their leadership that this paper came into existence. Alain Ntjam August 2013 5 UBS: Wealth Management Declaration of Authenticity I the undersigned declare that all material presented in this paper is my own work or fully and specifically acknowledged wherever adapted from other sources. I understand that if at any time it is shown that I have significantly misrepresented material presented here, any degree or credits awarded to me on the basis of that material may be revoked. I declare that all statements and information contained herein are true, correct and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief. Alain Ntjam August 2013 6 UBS: Wealth Management Table of Contents UBS: ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 THE WAY TO BECOMING A GLOBAL PLAYER IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT .......................................... 1 Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ 2 I. Introductory Part ........................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................. 7 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1. My motivations for the topic ................................................................................................... 10 1.2. Background of the paper .................................................................................................. 10 1.3. What is Wealth Management? ......................................................................................... 11 1.4. Summary of the main part ................................................................................................ 11 II. MAIN PART ................................................................................................................................. 12 2:The environment and objectives: Thefoundaments of a financial powerhouse ............................. 13 2.1. The Swiss famous banking: The market situation before the merger .............................. 13 2.1.1. Short Excursus: Additional information on the business environment ................................ 17 2.2. Microeconomic Scale: Merger between SBC and Union Bank of Switzerland ................. 18 2.2.1. What was the combined power of SBC and the Union Bank of Switzerland? .................... 18 2.3. An unequal bipartisan scenario to the merger ......................................................................... 19 2.3.1 SBC’s path to the merger ...................................................................................................... 19 2.3.2. The old UBS and its path to the merger ............................................................................... 21 2.3.3.. Situation of Both Banks ...................................................................................................... 23 2.3.4. The Merger ........................................................................................................................... 23 2.4. Global Expansion of New UBS - The choice of a major presence in the US .................. 24 2.4.2. Becoming a top wealth manager .......................................................................................... 25 2.5. Conclusion to Chapter 2 ................................................................................................... 25 3. UB and the 'One Firm' Strategy; Organizational structure & the role of wealth management in North America .................................................................................................................................... 28 3.1. The One firm Corporate Strategy ........................................................................................ 28 3.1.1 An attempt to grasp the strategy ............................................................................................ 29 3.2. Corporate Structur: SBC's heritage .................................................................................... 31 3.3. From multiple to one brand: PaineWebber's role within the One Firm strategy ............. 35 3.3.1 Long lasting impact of the rebranding: A comparison of UBS 2003 and UBS 2012 ........... 36 3.4. Why there is a need for a second Wealth Management division ..................................... 38 3.4.1. The importance of the Wealth Management Americas or Wealth Management USA ........ 38 3.5. Wealth Management - Comparison with Credit Suisse and other banks ......................... 41 3.4. Conclusion to Chapter 3 .......................................................................................................... 44 4. All WM Business at large and the Global Market ......................................................................... 46 4.1. A quick notice on Wealth Management at UBS and the central role of Switzerland ........ 46 4.2. UBS's Value Creation in Wealth Management ................................................................ 46 4.2.1. Value Chain Analysis ........................................................................................................... 47 4.2 Divisional Strategies and Organizations .............................................................................. 55 4.2.1. UBS Wealth Management in Switzerland ........................................................................... 55 4.2.2. UBS Wealth Management ...................................................................................................