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UBS delay marks rare setback in integration process

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UBS takeover of Credit Suisse is biggest bank merger since

2008/9

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Bank still committed to March deadline for Swiss transfers

By Ariane Luthi and Oliver Hirt

ZURICH, Nov 11 (Reuters) - UBS is delaying the

migration of some super-rich Credit Suisse clients to its own

platforms by several months, sources told Reuters, a rare

setback in an integration process that has so far progressed

relatively smoothly.

The delay signals that the bank could struggle to meet its

end-of-March deadline to complete the migration of all clients

with an account in Switzerland. UBS is still aiming to meet that

target and when asked for comment on Monday, a UBS spokesperson

said the migration in Switzerland was "proceeding as planned".

The Zurich-based lender's emergency takeover of Credit

Suisse in 2023 led to the largest bank merger since the 2008/09

financial crisis and a vast, multi-year integration involving

more than one million clients. UBS has said it will

"substantially" finish the integration by end-2026.

Investors are watching closely as the integration of

technology and data is a key part of UBS' pledge to squeeze $13

billion in cost savings from the merger. Moving clients onto new

tech platforms has proven a major headache in the past for big

lenders such as Deutsche Bank.

UBS has postponed the transfer of Credit Suisse wealth

management clients including ultra-high-net-worth individuals to

the first quarter of 2026, according to six people familiar with

the matter.

Some of the very rich clients were initially scheduled for

migration in September and have been delayed to January, one of

the people said.

Another client migration wave is now planned for February,

one of the six sources and an additional person said, and

another one for March, one of these people said.

Customers booked through Switzerland include locals and

those from elsewhere but with a Swiss account.

GLITCHES IN EARLIER CLIENT TRANSFERS

The exact reasons for the delay are unclear, but one of the

sources said integration teams were overworked, and a shift

before year-end could have complicated tax filings for clients.

UBS may have pushed back clients in this critical segment

after some glitches emerged in transferring less wealthy sets of

customers, two of the six sources said.

Problems have included transactions for clients that had to

be revised and systems that were not immediately available, the

people said, without going into specifics. Reuters could not

establish the scale of such glitches.

UBS did not respond to questions on glitches.

Separately, one of the six sources and the seventh person

said UBS was concerned that outflows of former Credit Suisse

clients may exceed expected levels as accounts are moved to its

systems.

UBS said when presenting third-quarter results last month

that it was on course to deliver the integration as announced,

having made "excellent progress" with more than two thirds of

Swiss-booked client accounts already migrated.

Bank mergers are hugely complex and can cause major problems

for acquirers.

Deutsche Bank's 2008 purchase of Postbank, for

example, became the source of consumer complaints, regulatory

scrutiny and costly lawsuits. The final technology integration

finished in 2023.