22 April, 2005

UBS sweeps the board for online FX

UBS has won overwhelming client affirmation for its online FX offering by sweeping the board in Profit & Loss magazine's Digital FX Awards 2005. As well as taking the award for Best Bank for the fourth year running, the firm also came top in the categories of Best Banks Platform, Best Online FX Prime Brokerage, Best Navigation (again) and Best FX Options (for the third year running).

Awarded for excellence in tools and functionality, the accolades are based on informal feedback from a range of buy-side clients - and so are a strong indication of client satisfaction with UBS's digital FX products.

Winning the award for Best Bank yet again is, says Profit & Loss, unsurprising, because in its opinion, UBS has "led the way in digital FX." Nevertheless, the magazine continues, "the level of commitment to staying ahead of the field is mightily impressive."

A key factor in the award was UBS's ability to "pick out areas of improvement in its system before the need becomes pressing," allowing the firm to offer "the ultimate client experience as far as digital FX is concerned."

The firm's ability to understand its clients - as well as the sophistication of its tools - was, says the magazine, a key factor in its winning the Best Banks Platform award.

In addition, an improved website with a "cleaner feel" that "tightened up an already great product" allowed the firm to hold on to the top spot in the Best Navigation Award, while enviable functionality kept UBS the award for Best FX Options for the third year running.

And when it came to the Best Online FX Prime Brokerage award, UBS has, says the magazine, "taken quite a leap forward in the last year with its reporting tools," resulting in a much improved client experience.

20 April, 2005

UBS vies with Nomura for the top spot in II's All-Japan Research Team rankings

For the second consecutive year, UBS has taken the No 2 position in Institutional Investor's 2005 All-Japan Research Team rankings, just behind Nomura.

UBS held onto its 19 ranked positions on the leaderboard, versus Nomura's 21. With 12 first-ranked team analysts out of a total of 30, UBS takes the No.1 rank on a weighted basis, however, and enjoys a good lead on all the other firms. This represents a big jump from the seven No.1 spots UBS gained in 2004, when the firm already had more top-ranked analysts than any other firm.

The winners of the 12 first-team positions are: Autos, Electronics/Industrial, Energy & Utilities, Financials/Other, Housing & Real Estate, Metals, OTC & Small Companies, Paper & Textiles, Software/Business, Telecommunications, Transportation, and Quantitative Research.

"UBS is widely respected for its commitment to research and the Japanese market when the latter sputtered in recent years," says the magazine.


19 April, 2005

Risk magazine cites UBS as No. 1 in Corporate Equity Derivatives for 2005

UBS's corporate clients have again hailed the firm for its equity derivatives platform in Risk magazine's Corporate End-User Rankings 2005.

UBS has taken over the number-one spot from JP Morgan for Equity derivatives overall, moving up from number two in 2004.

In the individual product rankings the firm maintained its number-one position for single stock options, winning 18.9% of the votes. In addition, UBS shared the top spot for equity-linked notes with JP Morgan, winning 15.2% of the votes, and achieved a second-place ranking for equity index options, winning 10.4% of the votes.

The survey polled 357 companies globally, with participants asked to vote for their top three derivatives dealers, taking into consideration performance, innovation and responsiveness.

15 April, 2005

IFR Asia names UBS Best Asian Securitization House of the Decade

IFR Asia has named UBS Best Asian Securitization House of the Decade. The accolade comes as UBS tops the league table of deals done since Asian asset-backed securities started in 1994. The firm is one of the few banks that's had a strong presence in the market from the beginning.

Asset-backed securities are securities that are based on pools of underlying assets. These assets are usually illiquid and private in nature. A securitization makes them available for investment to a much broader range of investors. The 'pooling' of assets aims to make the securitization large enough to be economical and to diversify the qualities of the underlying assets.

14 April, 2005

Corporate Finance magazine names UBS FX Forecaster of the Year

UBS has been named FX Forecaster of the Year 2004 by Corporate Finance magazine. The accolade acknowledges UBS's ability to 'second-guess' the currency markets ahead of other financial institutions across the world for the period February 2004 to February 2005.

The first-place ranking represents a leap from sixth position in the same study last year, though as the magazine points out, UBS would have finished third last year based on this year's more accurate methodology. Nevertheless, UBS's rise to the top spot is, says the magazine, "largely a result of standing by its convictions even when this clashed with the consensus view."

Corporate Finance based its findings on institutions' monthly predictions about what they thought the spot rate would be in three and 12 months' time for seven currency pairs. At the end of the year the magazine compared the submissions with the actual mid-month spot rate, revealing UBS as the most accurate overall predictor of currency markets, ahead of second-place Lloyds TSB and third-place Goldman Sachs.

When it came to forecasting individual currency pairs, UBS came top for predicting the pound against the dollar and the dollar against the yen.

The magazine was particularly impressed with UBS's ability to forecast the latter. "The consensus view was that the dollar would weaken more against the yen than against the euro," Mansoor Mohi-Uddin, global head of FX Strategy, tells the magazine. "But we stuck with our view that it would be the euro that bore more of the brunt of dollar adjustment rather than the yen."

"UBS's boldness paid off," says the magazine, when USD-JPY went to all-time highs.

UBS also achieved second-place rankings for predicting both the Euro and the Swiss franc against the dollar.

13 April, 2005

UBS jumps up the rankings II's All-Europe Fixed Income Research survey

UBS has moved up the rankings to No.4 in Institutional Investor's All-Europe Fixed Income Research survey, with 12 leaderboard positions. The 2005 results represent a jump from No.6 last year, when the firm achieved seven leaderboard positions.

UBS is now the only firm to be ranked in the top five across every II survey, and it continues to have more II-ranked analysts than any other firm.

The result of the poll comes hot on the heels of last week's announcement that for the first time ever UBS had achieved a top-three ranking in Euromoney's annual Credit Research poll.

All UBS's European credit industry sector analysts are now ranked in the top three. UBS has three first-placed research teams - one more than last year - with No.1 rankings for Automotives, Financial Institutions/Insurance Companies and Telecommunications, Media & Technology. The firm also has three second-placed research teams - again, one more than last year - with No.2 rankings for Utilities, Financial Institutions/Banks and Emerging Markets/Corporates.

UBS again had two research teams in third place: for Emerging Markets/Sovereigns and Quasi-Sovereign & Supranational Borrowers. The firm also had four runners-up - an increase from one last year - for Consumer Products, Industrials, Emerging Markets/ Strategy and Collaterialized Debt Obligations.

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