UBS is using its 150th anniversary to try to rebuild an image tarnished by a $2 billion trading scandal that struck just as Switzerland's biggest bank was starting to win back client trust after its near collapse in 2008.
The bank has been back in the headlines for the wrong reasons this month after it posted poor results for the last three months of 2011 and over its involvement in a global inquiry into a conspiracy to manipulate interbank lending rates.
"Reputation is the most important capital for a bank. Losing it just takes one unintended action, but rebuilding it demands the sweat of thousands," Chairman Kaspar Villiger told a gala dinner on Friday for clients, executives and top politicians.
"UBS has experienced that many times in its recent history," he said, citing the recent trading loss, the financial crisis and a scandal over the restitution of wartime Jewish assets held by Swiss banks in the late 1990s.
Seated prominently among 600 guests including former UBS chairman Marcel Ospel, who was ousted in 2008 as the bank's losses mounted, was Axel Weber, the former Bundesbank president who is set to become chairman of UBS in May.
Justin Urquhart Stewart, marketing director at Seven Investment Management, said UBS was doing the right thing by stressing its long history.
"The bad news is brands are built up with confidence over years and dissipated in seconds. On the comforting side they are not alone. They are just one on a list of banks in trouble," he said.
"The best thing they could do is get on the front foot and highlight their strengths including their history.. They should say: 'we've been through economic depressions and World Wars and we're still here'. You've got more chance of surviving if you've got a heritage."
According to a survey by the Brand Finance consultancy of the top 500 bank brands, UBS slipped to 30th place from 21st a year ago, but other banks like Bank of America, Santander and rival Credit Suisse saw their brands lose more absolute value. Before crisis struck, UBS was ranked sixth in the world in 2007.
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