UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company that is headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland. The company provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. The name UBS was originally an abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland, but it ceased to be a representational abbreviation after the bank's 1998 merger withSwiss Bank Corporation. The company traces its origins to 1856, when the earliest of its predecessor banks was founded.
UBS is the biggest bank in Switzerland, operating in more than 50 countries with about 63,500 employees globally, as of 2012. It is considered the world's largest manager of private wealth assets; with over CHF2.2 trillion in invested assets,a leading provider of retail banking and commercial banking services in Switzerland. According to the Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking Benchma2013, UBS had assets under management (AuM) of US$1,705.0 billion, representing a 9.7% increase in AuM versus 2012.
UBS suffered among the largest losses of any European bank during the subprime mortgage crisis and the bank was required to raise large amounts of outside capital
