Kirt Gardner
Analyst · the media
Thank you, Sergio. Good morning, everyone. My commentary will reference adjusted results unless otherwise stated. This quarter, our results have been adjusted for restructuring charges of CHF 265 million and net foreign currency translation losses of CHF 123 million. As previously noted, we've adopted the own credit presentation requirements of IFRS 9 with own credit recognized in OCI and no longer affecting our income statement. Wealth Management delivered a resilient performance with profit before tax up 26% to CHF 636 million. Transaction revenues were the lowest they've been in any first quarter on record. However, revenues increased as activity picked up from the extremely low levels in the prior quarter, which also included the CHF 45 million client shift fee paid from P&C to WM. Recurring net fee income decreased the benefits of pricing measures and higher mandate penetration were more than offset by lower invested assets in cross-border outflows. Net interest income declined as higher deposit revenues were more than offset by lower allocations from Group ALM and lower lending revenues as loan balances decreased on currency effects and client deleveraging. The cost-to-income ratio was 66%. Operating expenses decreased 10% to CHF 1.2 billion, largely due to lower net expenses per litigation, regulatory and similar matters. Net new money was CHF 15.5 billion, the highest since 2007, with an annualized growth rate of 6.5%. Strong net new money in the quarter was delivered despite client deleveraging, which continued but slowed from the high levels we saw in the second half of 2015. Invested assets decreased to CHF 925 billion, as currency effects and market declines more than offset strong net new money. Mandate penetration increased by 60 basis points to 27% with CHF 6.9 billion of net new mandates. Net new money was positive in all regions and particularly strong in APAC with CHF 8.8 billion, the second highest since 2007. Net new money was also strong in the ultra-high-net-worth segment with CHF 13.3 billion, an annualized growth rate of 10.5%, the highest since the first quarter of 2013. Wealth Management Americas delivered another solid quarter with profit before tax of $245 million. Operating income rose 1% to $1.9 billion on record net interest income, which benefited from higher interest rates. Recurring net fee income also increased with transaction-based revenue decreased on lower client activity. Operating expenses decreased to $1.7 billion mainly due to $215 million lower net expenses for litigation, regulatory and similar matters. Excluding these costs, expenses increased mainly due to higher allocated cost from Corporate Center, as the prior quarter included a cost agreement credit of $36 million. Personnel expenses also increased partly due to higher initial cost related to our new healthcare plan. Net new money was $13.6 billion, predominantly from newly recruited advisors, but also with solid net new money from advisors who have been with the firm for more than one year. For the second quarter, we expect to see typical trend of increased client withdrawals associated with seasonal income tax payments. In the previous three years, second quarter outflows from tax payments have been in the range of $2 billion to $4 billion. Invested assets increased by 2% to $1.1 trillion. Managed account assets were up 3% to a record $361 billion, or 34% of invested assets. FA productivity remained industry-leading, as both revenue and invested assets per FA increased. Lending balances were flat as growth in mortgage balances was offset by lower securities-backed lending. Personal & Corporate Banking delivered another solid performance, despite persistent negative interest rates and the challenges facing the Swiss economy, with profit before tax increasing 7% to CHF 422 million. Operating income increased 5%, mostly on higher transaction-based income, as the prior quarter included the CHF 45 million client shift fee paid to Wealth Management. Net interest income decreased as higher loan and deposit revenues were more than offset by lower allocations from Group ALM. Despite this, net interest margins remained healthy at 166 basis points. Net credit loss expenses were negligible. Its costs for newly impaired positions were offset by recoveries. As mentioned in the previous quarters, given the reliance of the Swiss economy on exports, the continuing strength of the franc may impact some of the counterparties within our domestic lending portfolio and lead to an increasing level of credit loss expenses in the future periods. Operating expenses increased by 4% on higher allocated costs from Corporate Center - Services, as the prior quarter included a cost agreement credit of CHF 49 million to P&C. The cost to income ratio was stable at 56% for the fourth consecutive quarter. Annualized net business volume growth for our personal banking business was seasonally higher at 4.9%. We continued to attract new clients with the highest first quarter net new domestic clients on record, mainly driven by younger clients, a testament to our strong e-banking and mobile banking offerings. Asset Management delivered a profit before tax of CHF 110 million in a challenging environment for active management, which impacted performance fees, particularly in Equities, Multi-Asset and O'Connor. Net management fees decreased primarily reflecting the sale of Alternative Fund Services in the prior quarter. Net new money, excluding money markets, was negative CHF 5.9 billion and included a CHF 7.2 billion pricing-related outflow from one client and CHF 3.8 billion of outflows driven by client-liquidity needs, both from lower margin passive products. Against the backdrop of a very challenging market conditions and needed client activity, most pronounced in Europe and APAC, the Investment Bank generated CHF 370 of profit before tax. Together with low continued consumption of financial resources, this resulted in a return on an attributed equity above our target of greater than 15%. Corporate Client Solutions' revenues were CHF 474 million, down 39% year-over-year as the global fee pool decline substantially, with the largest decrease in ECM but also in advisory, while DCM were broadly unchanged. Financing Solutions decreased on subdued client activity and margin compression. Risk management revenues decreased due to higher hedging cost and as the prior year included a gain on a portfolio macro hedge. In Investor Client Services, equities revenues were 20% lower against a strong first quarter as weak client activity and challenging trading conditions impacted revenues particularly in derivatives. The Americas equities business had a very strong quarter with positive trends in all products. Looking at FX rates and credits, we are pleased with the progress we are making particularly given market conditions. Apart from first quarter 2015, where we saw exceptional activity and revenues related to the SNB floor removal, first quarter 2016 is our best FRC quarter in the last 12 quarters as our client-centric, low-inventory model worked well in volatile markets. We recorded a net loss recovery of CHF 2 million as recoveries more than offset expenses from new provisions. In respect to our oil and gas exposure, at the end of March, our total funded and unfunded net banking product exposure decreased by CHF 600 million, to CHF 5.5 billion. This was driven by reductions in the exploration and production, as well as services and supply subsectors. We recognized a credit loss expense of CHF 17 million against these exposures, including the effect of establishing a collective provision, taking the total provisions to CHF 56 million. The idea exhibited strong expense and resource discipline. Operating expenses, excluding services to/from were down 26% year-over-year and personnel expenses were down 29%, mainly reflecting lower expenses per variable compensation. LRD was CHF 32 billion year-over-year and down CHF 6 billion from low year-end 2015 levels. VaR was at its lowest levels since 2013 and RWA was stable. Corporate Center - Services recorded a loss before tax of CHF 211 million compared with a loss of CHF 326 million in the prior quarter, largely as the prior quarter included retained costs, reflecting differences between actual annual costs incurred in allocations to the businesses. We have refined our group asset and liability management disclosure in order to provide greater transparency. Income from Group ALM's activities is disclosed for the three main risk management areas: business division-aligned risk management, capital investment and issuance, and group structural risk management. A description of these activities is provided on page 46 of our quarterly report. Total risk management net income, after allocations, retained within Group ALM can vary significantly quarter to quarter. This volatility is driven by factors such as movements in basis spreads and interest rates, the general market environment, which impacts the consumption of liquidity and funding by business divisions, and the volume of buffers that we are required to hold, combined with the returns we earn by managing these low-yielding assets. While the retained balance for the first quarter was negative CHF 17 million, in current conditions, we expect it to average around negative CHF 15 million per quarter in the short term, although there will be swings around this figure. We have organized a call for analysts and investors with Claude Moser, the Head of Group Asset Liability Management, where he will discuss Group ALM's activities and objectives and also answer questions on our new disclosures. We will provide details shortly. Group ALM operating income decreased negative CHF 27 million with a profit before tax of negative CHF 25 million as improved risk management net income, after allocations, was offset by the effects of accounting asymmetries related to the economic hedges as well as hedge accounting ineffectiveness. Profit before tax in Non-core and Legacy Portfolio was negative CHF 181 million, up from negative CHF 312 million in the prior quarter as expenses decreased largely due to lower net expenses for provisions for litigation, regulatory and similar matters, and as the prior quarter included a charge of CHF 50 million for the annual UK bank levy. There were also lower losses from novation and unwind activity as we take a more passive approach to reducing the remaining exposures. Non-core and Legacy LRD decreased by 11% to CHF 41 billion, mainly due to lower OTC-derivative exposures. And as previously highlighted, we expect a slower pace of reduction in LRD relative to prior experience, with the transition from active management to natural asset decay. Of course, we will actively reduce exposures, when doing so is accretive to shareholders. If we look back, we have delivered over CHF 2 billion of net Corporate Center cost savings since 2011. This includes saves to offset the more than CHF 0.5 billion of incremental annual ongoing regulatory costs. For the quarter, we achieved an additional annualized net cost reduction of more than CHF 100 million in the Corporate Center, bringing the total savings to CHF 1.2 billion, compared with the 2013 exit rate. And we are on track to deliver CHF 1.4 billion by the second quarter. Savings were largely driven by lower personnel expenses across Corporate Center - Services and Non-core and Legacy Portfolio. Occupancy costs decreased largely as a result of our ongoing efforts to improve real estate efficiencies. We are fully committed to delivering CHF 2.1 billion net cost reduction target by the end of 2017. As we've continued to make progress in our cost efforts, we've identified other opportunities to generate saving of a front-to-back nature. This has given us increased confidence in our ability to deliver the full CHF 2.1 billion, despite increased ongoing regulatory costs. For example, as part of our Investment Bank's simplification program, we do see the number of booking models in our swap business and reducing our legal entities will enable streamlining in the finance operations and risk functions that support them. We are also continuing to evolve the Wealth Management towards a more globally integrated model. This includes simplifying and streamlining middle office support functions, and creating a global distribution and advisory approach, which will increase our agility and ability to serve clients. We will continue to focus on capturing synergies across Wealth Management and Wealth Management Americas, specifically improving collaboration around our platforms. This will not only create savings as we capture additional benefits from scale, but also improve our client offering as we ensure that the best products and services available from across the globe are accessible to clients. Another opportunity is the review of our risk management and compliance activities and processes, where we identified opportunities to eliminate overlaps, streamline controls, centralize support activities and enhance accountability. This will both improve our control environment and deliver efficiencies and it will help improve client base and staff productivity. Apart from our structured costs, we will continue to look for more tactical actions to mitigate typical headwinds. Our capital position remains strong with a fully applied Basel III CET1 capital ratio of 14% and a fully applied Swiss SRB leverage of 5.4%. CET1 capital decreased as profits were more than offset negative currency translation effects and dividend accruals. Details on CET1 movements can be found on page 83 in our quarterly report. RWA increased by CHF 6 billion, driven by regulatory add-ons, book size, the net excess of a revised operational risk model partly offset by currency effects. LRD increased by CHF 8 billion due to higher on-balance sheet exposures in Group ALM related to our HQLA portfolio, as well as an increase in securities financing transaction exposures. These were partly offset by currency effects. We continue to build our capital position to address the revised Swiss too big to fail ordinance. In March, we issued CHF 1.4 billion of high-trigger AT1 capital, the first such transaction in 2016 attracting very strong demand. We also issued CHF 1.3 billion of TLAC during the quarter and issued $5 billion in early April, which will contribute to our total loss absorbing capacity under the new proposed capital requirements. Thank you. And with that, Sergio and I will now open it up for questions.