Dan Kitwood
UBS (NYSE:UBS) Chairman Colm Kelleher is looking for mergers and acquisitions opportunities in the United States in the coming years, Swiss newspaper NZZ reported on Sunday.
The Swiss financial giant, which took over rival Credit Suisse last year, wants to expand its wealth management business in the United States through potential mergers and acquisitions in three to four years, he said.
After its acquisition of Credit Suisse, UBS (UBS) came under criticism for its balance sheet of more than $1.6 trillion, which is about double the size of the Swiss economy. The size of UBS (UBS) has prompted Switzerland to scrutinize the regulation of banks deemed systemically important to the economy.
Kelleher has rejected calls for higher capital requirements.
“If you have too much capital you penalize shareholders, but also customers because banking services become more expensive,” he explained to NZZ.
Kelleher, an Irishman from County Cork, became chairman of UBS (UBS) in 2022. He previously worked for around three decades at US investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS).