Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The Japanese wealth management joint venture of UBS and SuMi Trust will acquire Credit Suisse’s wealth management business in Japan following the Swiss bank’s absorption of its stricken rival. This enlargement will strengthen the young company.
UBS is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland (© UBS).
Unchanged structure
UBS SuMi envisages that all of Credit Suisse’s wealth management assets managed in Japan as well as advisors will be transferred to UBS SuMi after the completion of the merger of UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG at the end of June 2024. Following the addition of Credit Suisse client assets in Japan, the partners will rebalance their investments in the joint venture so that the original ownership structure of 51% UBS and 49% SuMi Trust is maintained.
The addition of Credit Suisse client accounts will further extend UBS SuMi’s leading position in invested assets among global wealth managers in Japan. Reflecting in part the quick inroads the joint venture has made in Japan, UBS SuMi was recently named ‘2024’s Best International Private Bank in Japan’ by Euromoney magazine.
“This agreement is about more than growth. It’s a solid vote of confidence in our joint venture business model and the value we are adding with Credit Suisse talent and assets,” said Zenji Nakamura, UBS SuMi’s president, as well as UBS’s Japan Country Head.
Big in Japan
UBS and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust started operating their groundbreaking wealth management joint venture UBS SuMi Trust Wealth Management with offices in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya in August 2021. The Swiss banking group became the first foreign financial services company to offer global securities and wealth management capabilities together with the custody, real estate, inheritance, and wealth transfer expertise of a Japanese trust banking group.
Headquartered in Zurich and operating in more than 50 markets, UBS is a leading and truly global wealth manager and the leading universal bank in Switzerland. Through the acquisition of Credit Suisse, UBS managed 5.7 trillion dollars of invested assets as of the fourth quarter of 2023. In Japan, the firm offers corporate, institutional, and high-net-worth private clients a full array of financial products and services through five business entities: UBS Japan Securities, UBS AG Tokyo Branch, UBS SuMi Trust Wealth Management, UBS Asset Management Japan, and UBS Japan Advisors.
SuMi Trust Group is a leading trust bank group, combining its banking, asset management and administration, and real estate businesses. Assets under management are 125 trillion yen, and assets under custody are 273 trillion yen. SuMi Trust Group will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year. The founding aspiration was and is still based on the fiduciary spirit of trust to contribute to the development of Japan by solving social issues through the “Power of Trust”.
Text: UBS/SuMI Trust (Editing by SCCIJ)
