The third quarter can be important when it comes to bonuses in investment banks. Memories are short, and the months to October set the tone for bonus discussions that are finalised in Q4. A strong performance might make all the difference.
If you work for UBS's investment bank, then, the third quarter looks a bit unfortunate. In its Q3 results this morning, UBS discloses that operating profits in the division were down nearly 50% compared to last year.
The business lines aren't entirely comparable, but this is considerably worse than at HSBC, which also reported this morning and revealed that net operating income in its global markets division was largely stable. It's also a greater decline than at JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank (down 33%) or Citi's institutional clients group (down 30%).