Last year, the major bank UBS made its highest profit since 2006.

Driven by cost cuts and higher interest income, the Swiss institute earned $7.63 billion last year, as UBS announced on Tuesday.

The world's largest wealth manager for millionaires and billionaires thus exceeded the previous year's figure by two percent.

According to a survey conducted by the bank itself, analysts had expected a surplus of $7.26 billion.

The bank is well positioned to fund growth and deliver high returns on capital in 2023.

"We are starting 2023 from a position of strength," said CEO Ralph Hamers.

UBS reaffirms the goals.

The institute is still aiming for a return on core Tier 1 capital of 15 to 18 percent.

In 2022, the institute reached 17.0 (previous year 17.5) percent.

The UBS opened the annual reporting of the European investment banks with the Italian Unicredit.

In the current year, the institute, which has a solid balance sheet, wants to buy back its own shares worth more than five billion dollars.

In 2022, the buyback volume was $5.6 billion.

The dividend is to be increased to $0.55 (prior year: $0.50) per share.

Chairman of the Board of Directors Colm Kelleher wants to score points with large US investors and increase the valuation of the group with high dividends to the owners.

More saved

In the previous year, income fell by two percent.

Instead of trading and taking credit, customers retreated to the sidelines, reducing revenue.

Due to the falling stock market prices, the fee income linked to the customer's custody accounts also fell.

After all, the rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank brought more money into the bank's coffers.

The group reduced costs by four percent.

With gross savings of $500 million, the bank exceeded its $400 million target.

In the current year, another 400 million dollars are to be added, so that the cost reductions initiated by CEO Hamers will add up to a total of 1.1 dollars.

UBS earned a little more in its core business with the rich and super-rich.

At the same time, the bank attracted additional money from existing and new customers.

Net inflow of fee-generating assets reached $60 billion.

This corresponds to a growth rate of around four percent.

The bank is aiming for an annual increase of more than five percent over the cycle.

In investment banking, UBS earned significantly less.

As with the big Wall Street houses Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, advice to companies on takeovers was also paralyzed at UBS.

The tailwind in bond trading, on the other hand, passed UBS because the bank is hardly active in the business.

Group-wide, the results of the Schweizer 2022 were much more stable than those of the two US banks.

Accordingly, according to earlier information, UBS intends to continue to cautiously hire staff, while Goldman and Morgan Stanley had announced job cuts.

The crisis-plagued Credit Suisse, which wants to cut around 9,000 of the 52,000 jobs, is putting even more pressure on the cost brake.

The former problem child of the European banking industry, Deutsche Bank, is now much better positioned.

The Frankfurt publish their conclusion on Thursday.