Paul J. Davies, Columnist

UBS Has a Problem: It’s Too Profitable

April 30, 2026 at 4:00 AM UTC

Paul J. Davies is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering banking and finance. Previously, he was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Is there such a thing as too much?
Photographer: Pascal Mora/Bloomberg

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UBS Group AG had a very profitable first quarter — and that’s a bit of a headache for the Swiss bank.

Analysts are now convinced it will launch another $3 billion share buyback in the second half of 2026, following the one it will soon complete. But offering such largesse to investors at a time when Swiss lawmakers are debating how much extra capital the bank should hold to protect taxpayers against the risk of failure would be clumsy to say the least.