ABSTRACT
Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) AG is regarded as the world's largest manager of private wealth assets with nearly $2 trillion in assets under management in 2014. Founded in 1856 and headquartered in Switzerland, the bank was a monument of the conservative European banking tradition over generations. In 1997 the UBS merged with the Swiss Bank Corporation to create the second largest bank in the world at that time. When the global financial crisis took hold in 2007, UBS was heavily exposed to subprime derivatives and needed to rise $US11.5 billion to maintain capital adequacy. On 19 December 2012, UBS was fined $1.5 billion for its role in the manipulation of the London Inter-Bank Official Rate, which determines the rates of interest for trillions of dollars of funds across the world. In 2014 UBS faced further heavy fines from international regulators for currency manipulation.
