(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG has ended a multimillion dollar contract with BlackRock Inc.’s Aladdin technology platform that it inherited from Credit Suisse, as the Swiss bank continues to integrate its former rival’s asset management division.
The Zurich-based lender terminated the agreement earlier this year and has been moving key elements, including hundreds of Credit Suisse funds, onto its own systems, according to people familiar with the matter. It expects to complete the move by the end of this year.
UBS executives have spoken of the decommissioning of IT and linked infrastructure as a key factor for generating value for the bank’s shareholders following the takeover.
The Aladdin contract with Credit Suisse started in 2019 and revenue generated since then ranged between 50 million and 100 million Swiss francs ($126 million), the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Representatives for UBS and BlackRock declined to comment.
UBS’s asset management division has been struggling with flagging revenues as a result of falling management fees, countering efforts to lower operating expenses, including by way of job cuts. The combined units manage $1.8 trillion of assets and reported a pretax profit of $135 million for the first three months of the year.
Aleksandar Ivanovic took over the reins of the business in January last year following the retirement of Suni Harford. A few months later, the bank reshuffled the leadership as part of a push to streamline the division’s product offerings and reduce costs, Ivanovic told staff in an internal memo at the time.
Aladdin — short for asset, liability, debt and derivative investment network — provides trading, risk and other portfolio-management tools that are widely used by many of the world’s major money managers, pension funds and corporate treasurers. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, sells financial software that compete on certain fronts with Aladdin.
BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink has made technology a key pillar of his strategy for the world’s largest asset manager, which is seeking to grow beyond public markets. Annual revenue at BlackRock’s technology services division, which houses Aladdin, has jumped 45% to $1.6 billion between 2020 and 2024.
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