UBS Group AG

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to the UBS first quarter 2026 results presentation. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. Should you need operator assistance, please press star and zero. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Sarah McKee, UBS Investor Relations. Please go ahead, madam.

Good morning and welcome, everyone. Before we start, I'd like to draw your attention to our cautionary statement slide at the back of today's results presentation. Please also refer to the risk factors included in our annual report together with additional disclosures in our SEC filings. Throughout our remarks, we will refer to underlying results in U.S. dollars and make year-over-year comparisons unless stated otherwise. On slide two, you can see our agenda for today. It's now my pleasure to hand over to Sergio Amotti, who today reaches a notable milestone with his 50th earning call as Group CEO.

Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. In an increasingly complex environment, we delivered excellent first quarter results with a 17% return on CT1 capital and a 70% cost-income ratio, keeping us on track to achieve our 2026 financial objectives. Our performance this quarter reflects our leadership positions in the world's largest and fastest growing markets, with broad-based strength across all of our core businesses and regions. The quarter began against a backdrop of steady global growth and easing inflation. However, conditions quickly shifted, with markets becoming more volatile amid rising uncertainty, driven by concerns over AI-driven disruption and the conflict in the Middle East. As the environment became more fragile, our engagement with clients intensified as they turned to UBS to protect their assets and identify opportunities. Asia-Pacific was a standout performer as our unrivaled client franchises and one bank approach in the region generated around a third of the group's profit before tax and drove robust net new asset growth in global wealth management. The investment bank also delivered exceptional performance, supported by increased collaboration with wealth management and a favorable environment for our business mix and leading franchises in effects, including precious metals, cash equities, financing, and equity capital markets. And we achieved this without changing our approach towards disciplined resource allocation. More broadly, we saw strong inflows across our asset gathering platform while facilitating elevated private, corporate, and institutional client activity and sustaining lending momentum. In Switzerland, we granted or renewed around 40 billion Swiss francs of loans to businesses and households as clients continue to rely on our local and global expertise. Despite the ongoing uncertainties around private credit, we continue to see strong demand for alternatives. Led by our private market and hedge funds offering unified global alternatives, so record quarterly new client commitments. As we move through the second quarter, markets have remained broadly resilient, reflecting expectations that a durable diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict is achievable. That said, while clients remain engaged and active, risks are still elevated, and conditions could shift rapidly, impacting sentiment and activity levels. In this environment, our focus remains on supporting clients through disciplined execution as well as a prudent and selective investment approach focus on diversification and principle protection. Turning to the integration. In March, we successfully delivered one of the most critical and complex undertakings in our integration journey, the migration of Swissbook clients. As a result, I'm happy to say that the migration of former Credit Suisse clients onto UBS platforms is now complete. client activation and feedback is positive and retention rates have far exceeded our expectations. For this, I'd like to thank our clients for their continued trust and patience, and my colleagues for maintaining the highest standards of service and client focus. We now turn our efforts towards substantially completing the integration by year-end and restoring the levels of profitability we had prior to the acquisition. This is necessary to make our business even more resilient and ready for the future. Part of this will include continuing with the most painful part of the integration, reducing our workforce in line with our previously communicated plans. Finalizing the integration, including the decommissioning of the legacy infrastructure, allow us to intensify our focus on growing our businesses. We continue to invest across the group to deliver the breadth and depth of UBS to clients through a full one bank approach, front to back. This will support enhancements to the client experience and prepare us to drive further efficiencies. The latest example is the conversion of UBS Bank USA to a national bank charter. We are also encouraged to see that our AI capabilities are being recognized. We were recently named the best wealth management firm for use of AI in the U.S. at the Financial Times Wealth Tech Awards. At the heart of this award is our flagship AI platform, which delivers timely and personalized client insights for our financial advisors. Nearly 90% of FA teams use the platform, powering millions of AI-driven client interactions. In this environment, the benefits of our balance sheet for all seasons were evident once again, with strong profitability and disciplined resource usage further bolstering our capital position. This, alongside our integration progress, allow us to continue executing on our capital return objectives for dividend and buybacks while maintaining our investments for the future. We now expect to complete our current $3 billion share repurchase program by the time we report Q2 results in July. Then, we expect to provide more detail on our capital returns for the second half of the year. Our intentions will be calibrated based on our financial performance and outlook, maintaining a CT1 capital ratio of around 14% at year-end and further visibility on the parliamentary deliberation on the capitalization of foreign subsidiaries. Before I hand over to Todd, I want to address last week's announcement on bank capital regulation and what happens next. We have been very clear and transparent about our views on the proposed measures since they were first presented last June. We continue to strongly disagree with the proposed package because it is not proportionate or aligned with international standards and, as importantly, does not reflect the root causes and the key lessons learned from the Credit Suisse crisis. While there are some points that would deserve further clarification, let me just focus on what is still by far the most important one. Regardless on how the figures are presented or which assumptions are applied, there is a broad agreement, including among the authorities, that the announced measures would require UBS to hold around $22 billion in additional capital in CT1 terms. And this is on top of the $15 billion that we already need to hold as a result of the Credit Suisse acquisition under existing regulations. If the package were to be finalized as currently drafted, that $22 billion of capital would be trapped and unproductive. And at such scale, it would impact our competitive position in supporting clients, investing for growth, and delivering sustainable returns that keep UBS as an attractive investment case for shareholders. This is particularly relevant for any bank where shareholders are the first line of defense in turbulent times by providing, if needed, additional capital. As the proposed treatment of foreign participation now moves to Parliament, we hope that a total deliberation will fully consider the rather clear concerns raised in the democratic process by a wide range of stakeholders. We will continue to engage constructively and contribute to fact-based deliberations. Let me be very clear. These developments do not and will not change who we are as a firm. We remain committed to our diversified business model and our global and regional footprint. We are also fully committed to protecting our shareholders while mitigating the impact of these increased requirements, if possible, on our clients and employees and the communities where we live and work. I'm proud of all what we have achieved this quarter, and I remain extremely thankful to all of my colleagues for their dedication in this demanding environment. With that, let me hand over to Todd.