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UBS has reached its goal of becoming the world's largest wealth manager. Now, the Swiss bank is eyeing sustainability and purpose – a shift full of dicey contradictions. 

When UBS presents its fourth-quarter results on Monday, the Swiss bank is sure to put particular emphasis on one major topic: sustainability. The Zurich-based firm is likely to have bumped past the 1 billion Swiss franc mark for sustainably invested assets.

The shift from profit-seeker to do-gooder lays bare conflicts of interests and contradictions that are inevitable with a sprawling multinational firm with often disparate interests. 

The billion asset mark is a milestone in UBS' quiet reinvention of itself, the bank's second after a comeback from billions in losses and a 2008 taxpayer-funded rescue. From 2011, after it had largely stanched withdrawals by wealthy clients following the crisis of 2008/09, UBS began putting private banking at the center of its business – relegating investment banking to a supporting role.

Rich For Public Good

UBS had its pulse of the zeitgeist: financial regulators put the kibosh on the «casino»-style banking of the roaring oughties. Under CEO Sergio Ermotti, who in 2012 rolled out the to revamp the bank, UBS' blueprint of a healthily capitalized global wealth manager was copied by rivals in Switzerland and outside.

More than five years later, UBS seems to be shedding its skin yet again: the bank has bolstered its credentials as an advisor for sustainable and impact-oriented investments. At last year's WEF, the alpine confab for the world's political and business elite, the bank expressed an unconventional aim: to mobilize private funding for the public good.

UBS: Socially Woke

UBS' new social conscience isn't just window-dressing: Ermotti has massively ramped up the sustainable investment space at UBS, taking it out of a niche and into the big time: The bank issues investment products aimed at healing cancer. Its foundation wants to help girls in India with their schooling, and UBS recently launched an exchange-traded fund in the U.S. which is meant to vault the Swiss bank into the top position of socially-conscious ETFs.

The bank is producing reams of reports on issues such as income inequality, climate change, and discrimination of women and minorities. UBS quickly rolls out initiatives, such as a push for female clients as well as one to boost diversity in its own ranks, to address the problems.

Conscience vs. Profits

Just as Ermotti correctly predicted the post-crisis zeitgeist, the bank has also struck a chord with an emerging group of younger wealth management clients. Millennials don't just care about their returns – they want their inheritance to do good for society at the same time, as study after study reports.

The bank has won plaudits for its sustainability efforts: UBS leads in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as well as in the MSCI ESG rating. Is UBS the first global financial firm to devote itself to making the world a better place? Probably not. UBS remains a globally active firm which is fighting for clients and new money, and primarily pursues better returns and new sources of revenue.