Unique-UBS will get recent US pensions licence fixing paperwork error, filings present
By Stefania Spezzati and Ariane Luthi
LONDON (Reuters) – The U.S. Division of Labor granted UBS a waiver the Swiss financial institution must proceed managing U.S. retirement plans after a paperwork error had put the $11 billion of property the lender oversees in danger, paperwork present.
After a five-month assessment, the U.S. company stated in a discover revealed on Wednesday that UBS can now depend on its standing of certified skilled asset supervisor within the U.S. till June 2029.
The exemption, first reported by Reuters, is retroactive and applies from June 2023 when the financial institution took over failed rival Credit score Suisse.
UBS wants the waiver to service U.S. pensioners as a result of lately the financial institution has been convicted of crimes together with market rigging and tax fraud in France.
The company stated UBS groups working within the U.S. pension market ought to stay insulated from the convicted UBS and Credit score Suisse entities and trusted to safeguard property.
UBS, which had been working underneath an exemption since 2013, was informed that it might receive a brand new mixed waiver after the Credit score Suisse merger, topic to assembly sure situations, together with submitting an audit report by January 2024.
UBS missed that deadline, in response to the discover paperwork contained in a bundle that runs into tons of of pages and was reviewed by Reuters.
In early 2024, UBS was informed by the Division that the financial institution appeared to have misplaced its waiver, in response to the correspondence.
Nonetheless, it took months for the error to get mounted, correspondence between the financial institution and the U.S. company from July exhibits.
The episode affords a uncommon glimpse into the big challenges UBS faces in integrating Credit score Suisse – the most important banking merger for the reason that world monetary disaster of 2008 – and highlights the minefield of paperwork and regulatory approvals it must receive and keep.
The missed deadline compelled UBS to regulate its U.S. compliance staff together with naming a second compliance officer to supervise the waiver course of, in response to a letter from a UBS authorized consultant to the U.S. company dated July 29.
In its correspondence, UBS has stated it “deeply regrets its oversight” and that the delay was “unacceptable”, whereas noting that the mixing of Credit score Suisse has been “the topic of intense and demanding efforts.” It additionally stated that “with out exemption many consumers would go away UBS.”
A spokesperson for UBS declined to remark. A consultant for the U.S. Division of Labor didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The misstep put UBS susceptible to shedding a enterprise managing greater than $11 billion, a key half the financial institution’s asset administration enterprise.
