As stated before, the bank is targeting a return on equity of up to 15 per cent by the end of 2026. UBS has been in the process of integrating Credit Suisse in one of the biggest bank M&A deals since the 2008 financial crash.

UBS, the world’s largest international wealth manager, said yesterday that from 3 April it plans to start repurchasing up to $2 billion in shares.

As previously communicated, the Zurich-listed bank said it expected to repurchase up to $1 billion of its stocks, starting once UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse is wrapped up.

That deal is scheduled for the end of the second quarter, it said in a statement.

“Our ambition is for share repurchases to exceed our pre-acquisition level by 2026,” it said. 

By making the buybacks, UBS hopes to improve its return on equity. The bank reported a fourth-quarter return on equity (on an underlying basis, based on common equity Tier 1 capital) of 4.7 per cent. The lender said it intends to maintain a reported return on CET1 capital of about 15 per cent by the end of 2026, rising to about 18 per cent in 2028. In Q4 2023, UBS logged a pre-tax loss of $751 million, including credit loss costs of $136 million.

In total, more than 298.5 million UBS shares were repurchased via a separate trading line on the SIX Swiss Exchange as part of the 2022 share repurchase programme launched on 31 March 2022. This block accounted for 8.62 per cent.