UBS Group AG

UBS Group AG was started as a holding company for USB AG in 2014. At its inception, it would start trading on the NYSE and SIX Swiss Exchange. As UBS Group has become the holding company, shares of USB AG were delisted from the two aforementioned exchange markets. One portion of UBS Group can be traced back to 1854, when six private banking firms pooled together to form an underwriting syndicate. It would face some issues when suffering losses in Germany, but would recover and merge with Zürcher Bankverein, Basler Depositenbank, and Schweizerische Unionbank. At this point in time it was known as the Swiss Bank Corporation. The Bank would have a large influx of foreign funds during World War II, opening an office in New York City and losing its traditional business. The bank would then acquire the Commercial Bank of Basel, the Banque Populaire Valaisanne, and the Banque Populaire de Sierre, among others, that would fuel the company’s growth. This growth would, in turn, allow further mergers with Dillon, Read & Co. in 1997. The other portion of UBS Group is the Union Bank of Switzerland, which was born out of a merger between the Bank in Winterthur and the Toggenburger Bank. Its growth would be impeded by World War II, specifically by the issues of unclaimed property of war victims. Following these issues, the Union Bank of Switzerland would acquire banks such as the Eidgenössische Bank, becoming a leading underwriter of eurobonds. By the 1990s, the bank would become the largest and most conservative Swiss Bank. In 1997, the Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation, the second and third largest banks in Switzerland, would merge together to form UBS, a large bank with assets of $600 billion. It is now the largest bank in Switzerland, with operations in over 50 countries and 60,000 employees globally. UBS Group has over a trillion in assets, bringing in $28 billion in revenue in 2014. Some of its notable mutual funds include the Dynamic Alpha Fund, Global Alloation Fund, and Asset Growth Fund, and some of its notable ETFs include its various Oil and Gold funds.