Union de Banques Suisses

(also Union Bank of Switzerland), a major Swiss commercial bank, formed in 1912 when the Bank von Winterthur (founed 1862) and the Toggenburger Bank (founded 1863) merged. The bank expanded until 1969 by absorbing smaller banks.

The Union de Banques Suisses, whose headquarters are in Zürich, carries out a variety of banking transactions. It has a confidential investment company that invests depositors’ capital in securities in Switzerland and abroad. The bank maintains 91 branches, 110 agencies, and eight subsidiary financial concerns in Switzerland and 30 branches and offices and four subsidiary financial concerns in foreign countries. It works with several multinational banking groups that invest in Latin America and the Far East and manages, with the Deutsche Bank, a bank in New York.

As of June 1977 the Union de Banques Suisses had total assets of 54.2 billion Swiss francs and capital and reserves of 3.4 billion francs; current accounts and deposits of other banks totaled 16.8 billion francs, and those of other clients, 25.5 billion. The bank had discounted notes and loans of 18.5 billion francs, accounts in other banks of 21.4 billion francs, and mortgages and securities of 10.1 billion francs.