UBS: UBS' Asia Wealth Profit Rises From Higher Trading and Fee Income

The wealth management unit of UBS saw higher profits in Asia on the back of growth in both transactional and recurring income.UBS Global Wealth Management in Asia Pacific posted profit before tax of $428 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to the bank's financial results, up 36 percent year-on-year. This included a 9 percent increase in revenues to $1 billion, mainly driven by growth in transaction-based and recurring income. Operating expenses fell 5 percent to $604 million with the cost/income ratio decreasing to 58.4 percent.The region also recorded $7.5 billion of inflows with invested assets growing $24 billion quarter-on-quarter to $689 billion - a new high for APAC. Globally, the bank grew invested assets by $36 billion to reach a total of over $4.2 trillion. This was mainly driven by positive foreign currency effects of $36.1 billion alongside net new asset inflows of $31.5 billion, partly offset by negative market performance of $24.6 billion.Overall, UBS recorded a pre-tax group profit of $2.1 billion, more than doubling the same period last year.