UBS surpasses third-quarter expectations with a $1.4 billion profit.

On Wednesday, the Swiss banking giant announced a significant profit increase after successfully completing its first wave of client migrations following its acquisition of Credit Suisse.

The net profit attributable to shareholders was $1.43 billion, exceeding the mean forecast of $667.5 million in a LSEG poll of analysts.

UBS reversed its course towards profit in the first quarter of 2024, ending two consecutive losses resulting from the acquisition of Credit Suisse. Despite the challenges and warnings from the OECD, UBS maintains that it is not "too big to fail."

UBS has announced that it expects to save $7 billion from the Credit Suisse deal by the end of 2024, which is $6 billion more than its initial target of $1 billion. This is a significant increase from the $1 billion savings it achieved in 2022. However, the bank still faces challenges in integrating its IT system with that of Credit Suisse and migrating clients, which is expected to take around 18 months.

Since the merger of UBS and Credit Suisse, CEO Sergio Ermotti is responsible for setting the bank's course amid geopolitical instability, declining interest rates, and pressure to keep up with the double-digit profit growth of U.S. competitors such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In Switzerland, UBS operates in an economy marked by a strong and falling annual inflation rate that dropped to 0.8% in September, prompting questions about further monetary policy easing from the Swiss National Bank and the potential impact of such interventions on the profitability of commercial lenders.

This week, European lenders including Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Santander have released their third-quarter reports, following the profit beat of UBS.

This breaking news story is being updated.