The closures will affect 44 of the bank’s 239 branches in the country, mainly smaller ones, UBS confirmed on Tuesday. The bank plans to continue beefing up its online offers.
The announcement, which had been rumoured for a few months already, was confirmedExternal link by UBS Switzerland director Axel Lehmann to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper on Tuesday.
Lehmann said the decision was due to the changing needs of clients. In the past year, over-the-counter transactions in UBS branches fell by 10%, and two-thirds of clients now deal with the bank mostly digitally, he said.
It’s like “small village grocery shops, which it’s not possible to keep running when clients shop online or go to big supermarkets”, Lehmann said.
More
More
Pandemic speeds up push to digital as bank branches close
This content was published on
Banks are ramping up their digital offerings to customers as they close down high street branches.
The coronavirus pandemic was not the direct cause of the decision, but it “accelerated the trend towards digitalisation”, he added.
UBS once had some 300 branches across the country. It already shut down 28 of them last year.
The UBS closures will happen in the next few months, and will affect around 150 staff, although no layoffs are currently planned, Lehmann confirmed.
Switzerland’s second largest bank Crédit Suisse announced last year it would cut 39 of its 146 branches, as part of plans to save CHF100 million ($112 million) annually.
University students in Switzerland join Gaza protest wave
This content was published on
Pro-Palestinian activists occupied university buildings in Lausanne, Geneva and Zurich on Tuesday, widening the protest movement in the Alpine nation.
TradeXBank to resume full operations after Sberbank Switzerland taken off sanctions list
This content was published on
TradeXBank, the former Swiss branch of Russia’s Sberbank, will be able to resume its dollar-denominated activities from the second half of this year.
Geneva decides not to remove controversial memorials
This content was published on
The city of Geneva has presented an action plan regarding a series of controversial local statues and monuments of historical figures linked to racism, colonialism or slavery.
University of Lausanne calls for end to pro-Palestine sit-in
This content was published on
The pro-Palestinian occupation continues at the University of Lausanne (UNIL). On Monday evening, a group of students refused to agree to the deadline set by the rectorate.
Ukraine peace conference should include Russia, says Chinese ambassador
This content was published on
China supports a peace conference on the Ukraine war that would see equal participation of all parties, says Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui.
This content was published on
A majority of Swiss citizens have open attitudes towards various infertility treatments, including even egg donation, which is currently prohibited.
Reports of Swiss cyber fraud almost doubled in six months
This content was published on
The head of the new Federal Office for Cybersecurity (FOC), Florian Schütz, has presented a new strategy after just over four months in office.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Credit Suisse-owned bank brand disappears in savings drive
This content was published on
Credit Suisse said in a statement on Tuesday that job cuts are “inevitable” as it merges NAB’s activities within its centralised Swiss operations. The group-wide reorganisation could result in up to 500 posts being cut, André Helfenstein, CEO of Swiss Universal Bank and Credit Suisse Switzerland later told journalists. But some new posts are likely…
This content was published on
This is because more and more customers are doing their banking online, the bank’s new CEO Patrik Gisel said in Zurich on Friday. No job losses were foreseen, a spokesman told the Swiss News Agency, adding that it would be small branches that would be closed and that mergers of local Raiffeisen banks was a…
This content was published on
New digital banks are popping up in Switzerland without a single branch or counter. One of them is staking its success on doing more with less.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.