UBS orders bankers to scale back sale of complex currency products

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

UBS has ordered bankers to scale back sales of complex currency derivatives after clients suffered heavy losses linked to Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcements.

The Swiss bank told advisers to stop pitching the structured FX products — known as Range Target Profit Forwards (RTPFs) — to many clients, according to three people familiar with the discussions, amid growing concerns about sales practices and whether the products were suitable.

UBS has already made more than 100 “goodwill” payments to customers who lost money when the US dollar moved sharply in the wake of Trump’s April tariff announcements.

The bank was now running internal role-play sessions to improve how advisers assess client risk profiles and suitability, one of the people said.

“The tone at internal meetings has completely changed in the past few months,” the person added. “Now it’s all about risk assessment, not boasting about how many clients you got to sign up to these things, which have lucrative fees.”

One UBS client said his adviser had recently stressed that such products should now be reserved for only the most sophisticated clients, with far greater scrutiny of suitability.

The person said his adviser who had marketed the products had become far more cautious.

“This time, my adviser didn’t bring any paperwork — just wanted to talk. He said they’ve been told to stop pushing these.”

Another person familiar with the situation added the bank was still selling the products, but in much smaller volumes.

RTPFs are not new but are designed for professional investors with a high risk tolerance, and are restricted or tightly regulated in many jurisdictions, including the UK, Spain and several Asian markets.

The products offer limited upside, but expose clients to potentially unlimited losses.

The ones at issue in UBS’s case involved regularly exchanging US dollars for Swiss francs at a fixed rate, provided the exchange rate stayed within a defined range. But when the dollar dropped sharply after Trump’s tariffs, many clients were forced to continue trading on increasingly unfavourable terms, leading to steep and unexpected financial damage.

UBS said it is taking the matter seriously and has proactively contacted clients who suffered “unexpected effects.” An internal task force conducted a broad review and began contacting clients earlier this year.

But the matter is far from closed. According to Swiss investor protection group SASV, UBS is still holding meetings with aggrieved clients and their lawyers.

“UBS is pushing many of these clients to end the RTPF contracts in order to get a settlement agreement,” said Arik Röschke, general secretary of the Swiss Association for the Protection of Investors. SASV said it had assisted 46 clients to date, with some having settled.

Röschke said clients reported that their advisers often failed to understand the product themselves, and in one case, a UBS adviser persuaded a client to mortgage their home to invest in the product.

“Most of the people who came to us said they had the impression UBS did not look adequately into [their financial] details,” Röschke added.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that UBS is in discussions with about two dozen clients and legal representatives. The bank is also reviewing the conduct of six client advisers who sold the products to clients who may not have fully understood the risks, they said.

Most Swiss private banks, including Lombard Odier, Pictet and Safra Sarasin, only offer such foreign exchange derivatives to clients who explicitly request them. Most do not offer RTPFs at all.

The UBS case is especially sensitive because the bank is under heightened regulatory scrutiny following its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse in 2023. The episode has raised fresh concerns about risk controls and client protection at the world’s second-largest wealth manager.

Read the full article here