UBS Disperses Calming Drops

The world’s largest wealth manager sought to soothe investor nerves amid market turmoil sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Swiss-based UBS said it had observed «little to no» disruption in service to wealthy clients as trading volumes surged amid a stock and bond market rout. Worries that the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the global economy is overshadowing broad policy moves meant to counter the fallout.

The remarks address a pandemic expected to wreak economic havoc: Deutsche Bank on Wednesday predicted a global recession, with the demand to plunge in China this quarter and in Europe and the U.S. next. Rating agency Moody’s noted that global investment banks’ solid liquidity allows them to manage rising drawdown demands.

Private banks like UBS are seeing volume surge as investors shift their portfolios and hunt for liquidity to meet margin calls. We have seen little to no disruptions in service to our clients and have successfully managed very high volumes across our businesses, particularly in our trading operations, finance chief Kirt Gardner said on Wednesday.

He underscored UBS’ conservative capital cushion, its ample liquidity and funding, and successful stress tests. «While previous economic growth projections are clearly no longer valid, it is too early to forecast the impact» – and it depends on official responses from health, monetary, and other authorities, he noted.