Does UBS support Israel?

In a memo to employees on Thursday 12 October 2023, days after the October 7 attacks, UBS said it would match $5 million in donations from employees and clients and would work to expand its network of partners to provide aid with resettlement for displaced families. The matching money is corporate; the underlying gifts are employees' and clients' own, so this is not a straight corporate donation. Reuters does not say whether the $5 million is the ceiling on UBS's own contribution or on the donations eligible for matching, and names no recipient organization. Effectively single-sourced: both links below carry the same Reuters wire story by Lananh Nguyen and Aditya Soni (13 October 2023), republished by Yahoo Finance and Ynetnews; no UBS media release of its own could be found.

By its own account UBS is the oldest foreign member of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: it began operating in Israel in 1996 and joined the exchange in 1997, and it now runs wealth management (locally since 2012), investment banking, brokerage, underwriting and M&A there, plus a technology team it recruits for in Israel. Onshore wealth management runs through UBS Wealth Management Israel Ltd., described on UBS's own site as a wholly owned UBS subsidiary and an Investment Marketing licensee regulated by the Israel Securities Authority, with UBS Switzerland AG registered in Israel as a Foreign Dealer; its office is at 8 Hachoshlim Street, Herzliya Pituach. Globes reported the 2012 launch of the dedicated Israeli unit — then presented at UBS's Tel Aviv branch by chairman Kaspar Villiger, with UBS Wealth Management Israel CEO Kobi Faigenbaum, and UBS said at the time it was deliberately not seeking an Israeli banking licence. This is commercial presence serving Israeli clients, not a donation or a pledge; UBS's pages were still live and current when archived in March and June 2026.