Saturday, March 01, 2008

It looks the same like at home


Walking recently in Down Town Charleston I saw this sign and felt for seconds like I'm back home in Zurich again :-)

UBS has its roots as a Swiss Bank, originating in 1747, when its first branch was established in the Swiss region of Valposchiavo. However, the three core components of the company date back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation, and Paine Webber or their antecedents, were all founded in the 1860s and 1870s.

Modern UBS was formed through a merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation in June 1998. Although the merged company's new name was originally supposed to be the "United Bank of Switzerland," officials opted to call it simply "UBS."

SBC had previously built a global investment banking business through its acquisitions of Dillon Read in New York and S.G. Warburg in London. The first chairman of the merged bank had to step down in October 1998 due to the Long-Term Capital Management crisis, which affected the Union Bank of Switzerland. In 2000, UBS acquired PaineWebber Group Inc. to become the world's largest wealth management firm for private clients. Invested assets in all wealth management businesses, including the U.S., total CHF 3.265 trillion.

On June 9th, 2003, all UBS business groups rebranded under the UBS name as the company began operating as one large firm. UBS Paine Webber, UBS Warburg, UBS Asset Management, and others became simply "UBS". As a result of the rebranding, UBS took a $1B writedown for the loss of goodwill associated with the retirement of the Paine Webber brand. UBS is no longer an acronym but is the company's brand, like 3M. Its logo of three keys, carried over from SBC, stands for confidence, security, and discretion.[3]

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide, with offices in 50 countries. According to the UBS website, the bank had 81,557 employees on June 30, 2007. The 2007 Q2 report breaks these Financial Business permanent staff down by region as: 27,315 in Switzerland, 31,933 in the Americas, 13,355 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA / not including Switzerland), and 8,954 in Asia and Australasia (APAC).


Read more about UBS here

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This brings me up some memories too :-)

Zurich, the place to be !!! The lake, the mountains, the sceneries, ...

But did you know there is a small town called Zurich in Holland too? Dave will definitely know that :-)

Have a great weekend !!!

Luke

Andrea and Kim said...

It is great to be reminded of home! Your country is one of the most beautiful! My family spent Christmas there two years ago and a week in Wengen 2 summers ago! So for me, it is great to be reminded of such a beautiful place, as well.

Photographs are like that! Beautiful reminders!

S-V-H said...

Hi Luke,
thanks for commenting.

I didn't know that you had connections to Zurich, CH and Dave don't knew about Zurich in the Netherlands either. Thanks for so much great informations.

S-V-H said...

Thank you so much Kim,

for your kind words. Wengen is a big tourist destination and a nice mountain village, I liked it myself very much and to hike up there and to take the little train up to "Top of Europe".:-)

Bob Johnson said...

Cool info Susanne, nice to be reminded of home.

S-V-H said...

It is, Bob...yes, living in a foreign country it's nice to see something that reminds you to home.:-)
Thanks for your comment.

silken said...

glad you had a brief moment in time back home! :) that's always nice!

S-V-H said...

Thank you so much Silken

for your nice comment. :-)

Voegtli said...

You should apply to them to make a new brochure for them. With your good details of UBS and your photos.

I remember the old days of SBC. My grandmother sent me always to the branch of SBC in her town to get money for her. I was then 12 years old. I was always impressed when I entered the bank and saw thise huge (in volume) hall with carved marble pillars. And counters with thick glass and grim looking spectacled tellers. And then, shyly, I handed over the cheque and got the money. And as the tellers started to know me, they said: "Goodbye, Peter".

Many years later, when it became UBS, I had one of their branch managers living in the same building like me. We took the train together to work. He told me that UBS prefers clients like me, clients that never go to the bank, clients who withdraw there money from an ATM.

Because when someone comes to the counter to withdraw 100 USD, it costs UBS 200 USD to serve him.

And that it is way today in a big Swiss bank there are not only numbered bank accounts. But the customer has become a number too. And the employees will not say "Goodbye Peter" anymore. Unless I would be some big guy with some big money. I am not a bit guy and I don't have big money.

S-V-H said...

Hi, Hallo und Gruezi Peter,

You say, you are not rich and you have not much money - but you have wonderful words written here. Thank you so much for that! I always appreciate your comments.

myonlyphoto said...

All chain businesses always look the same, lol, Susanne. I remember when I was in Greece, was so shocked with the same McDonalds, lol. Glad something reminded you home. Very nice angled shot. Anna :)

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