The finest fixed income trader at UBS may be this man here. Or maybe this one
As we have reported here, UBS's fixed income salespeople and traders have been through some changes. All sorts of people have left the rates team. Others have arrived. Something good seems to have happened.
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UBS reported today that its fixed income sales and trading revenues rose by 38% year-on-year in the first quarter. This compared to an increase of 8% in fixed income revenues at Deutsche Bank and an increase of almost nothing over at Barclays.
Someone at UBS can therefore feel fine. It's not clear who that might be, but one man seems a strong candidate: Eric Li, the Singapore based head of FX trading.
UBS said today that it was "mainly" FX revenues that drove its 38% revenue rise. This is Li's domain. He's been with the bank since 2010 and has been running FX trading since 2024. Some people have left during his tenure (eg. Alex Manaykan, who briefly joined from Credit Suisse before going to Mizuho), but this does not seem to be an issue. Li's team appear to have outperformed the rest.
They may have had some help, though. UBS isn't commenting, but its precious metals business is also thought to have had a fine Q1. On this basis, people like Matthew Slater in New York might also be feeling flush.
What about the depleted rates team in London? Here, things are less assured. Jonas Klink is understood to have left and the new Nomura hires are maybe too new to make a difference. Shane O’Cuinn, the former Credit Suisse trader who now runs the UBS macro business may yet hire some more people. O'Cuinn could maybe even move remaining traders over from the UBS non-core unit, which he briefly ran, and which is running its assets down. In the past quarter, though, assets in the unit seem to have fallen by only 3%, suggesting disposals are stickier than they were at the start.
Little mention was made today of UBS's credit business. The Swiss bank hired Robert Laux from Bank of America to run its high yield team in the first quarter. Bharat Gupta, the former team head, is leaving.
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