UBS executives have revived discussions about ways to move the bank outside Swiss regulatory oversight, including a possible combination with a foreign lender, according to Semafor’s report, which cites people familiar with the matter.
Morgan Stanley has been named as a possible partner in subsequent headlines, but there have been no reported merger negotiations or agreed-upon deal between the two banks.
UBS shares rose 2.5% in early Zurich trading today, Friday, following the Semafor report.
Is UBS Senior Leadership Again Considering Options For Leaving Swiss Jurisdiction?
Semafor’s sourced reporting says UBS’s senior leadership is again considering options to leave the Swiss jurisdiction after a parliamentary setback. It does not identify a specific bank with which UBS is in talks. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered appear in a separate section explicitly labelled as potential partners.
However, local Swiss media reports raise the prospect of a UBS deal with Morgan Stanley, drawing on Semafor and Bloomberg, but neither publication reported that the banks had entered merger talks.
UBS and Morgan Stanley have declined to comment.
Morgan Stanley is a prominent name in the investment world, partly because UBS chairman Colm Kelleher previously held a senior role there. A combination would also join two major wealth-management businesses. Those connections make it a plausible scenario for discussion.
UBS–Morgan Stanley Merger: Capital Vote Raises Stakes
The speculation follows Wednesday’s vote by Switzerland’s Council of States to require UBS to back 90% of the value of its foreign subsidiaries with Common Equity Tier 1 capital, the strongest form of bank capital. The proposal is less demanding than the government’s original 100% plan, but tougher than the arrangement UBS had sought. It must still pass the rest of the parliamentary process.
UBS estimates that the 90% rule, if enacted, would require approximately USD 16 billion in additional CET1 capital at its Swiss parent bank. That would come on top of about USD 2 billion under earlier ordinance-level measures. UBS’s separate estimate of roughly USD 33 billion covers combined incremental requirements since its 2023 acquisition of Credit Suisse; it is not the cost of Wednesday’s vote alone.
In a statement after the vote, UBS called the outcome an “excessive tightening” and said it would continue arguing for rules it considers proportionate. The bank did not announce plans to relocate or merge.
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