UBS Virtual Museum

1938-1965

message is announced

1938

Three keys for Swiss Bank Corporation

UBS without the three-keys logo? Unimaginable! The three crossed keys without the UBS lettering are equally unthinkable. These two components have combined to create the distinctive UBS logo since 1998. The three keys, however, are about 60 years older: prior to the 1998 merger, they belonged to Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC).

  • SBC began using the three-keys logo in the middle of June 1938
  • The three keys: first used for the 1938 annual report
  • UBS logo
  • UBS logo
  • Example of an unused design from 1937
  • Example of an unused design from 1937
  • Example of an unused design from 1937
  • Example of an unused design from 1937
  • Example of an unused design from 1937
  • Example of an unused design from 1937

SBC began using the three-keys logo in the middle of June 1938

At that time, the keys symbolized trust, security and discretion.

The three keys: first used for the 1938 annual report

At its Zurich main office, a need for a logo arose in the middle of the 1930s so that printed material could be designed consistently going forward....

Following the directors’ meeting approving this request at the end of October 1936, the task was to gather various offers with proposals in Basel and Zurich. The best design was presented in Zurich: Warja Lavater (1913–2007), a Zurich-based artist and graphic designer, created a logo with three crossed keys and the founding year, 1872.

Spot the difference

The "1872" has disappeared. From the early 1980s onwards the three keys appeared without the year. Since the middle of 1979, internal publications used the logo without the year of foundation; annual reports, however, only did so from 1983.

The three keys as a major part of the UBS logo

Example of an unused design from 1937

Example of an unused design from 1937

Example of an unused design from 1937

Example of an unused design from 1937

Example of an unused design from 1937

Example of an unused design from 1937

This proposed design depicting a basilisk refers to Basel, birthplace of SBC.

1939

Turbulent years at the New York branch office

Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) made a number of attempts after its founding aimed at establishing itself in the “new world of unlimited opportunities.” As the North American region grew in economic importance and there were more and more trouble spots in Europe, SBC decided toward the end of the 1930s to open a branch office in New York. More specifically, it opened its office on 4 July 1939, at 15 Nassau Street, close to the stock exchange. SBC hoped that the New York office would develop in a similar fashion to the London office, which had enjoyed a successful track record since 1898. The State of New York’s banking department gave its approval for the office’s transformation into a full branch in 1963.

  • An office at a prestigious location
  • SBC New York entrance to the bank
  • SBC New York. The counter hall

An office at a prestigious location

SBC purchased, among other things, shares in Zurich–American Trust Co. in 1904 and interests in Paris’ Société Financière Franco-Américaine a year later, with the aim of operating in the North American securities market....

The syndicate was involved in the establishment of the German–American Bank in Berlin in 1906. SBC’s Board of Directors decided that the New York office would open on 4 July 1939. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York originally had offices in the commercial building at 15 Nassau Street, with the vault serving as its location for storing precious metals.

Photo taken in the 1940s.

UBS AG, Historical Archive

Independence Day opening

The office had 60 employees when it first opened, many of whom were from Switzerland and other parts of Europe....

A year later it boasted 164 staff and SBC’s third-largest balance sheet. The reason behind this was the deteriorating political situation in Europe which led to large securities deposits by foreign bank clients.

The office came under the supervision of the U.S. Banking Regulatory Commission in the summer of 1942 after the US had entered WWII. The Commission’s watchdog agent monitored the office’s correspondence and business dealings. The office was not placed on an equal footing with American banks until a year later, by which time it was already cooperating directly with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and monitoring ceased.

The counter hall

A new law that enabled foreign banks to establish branches in New York State was passed in 1963....

SBC was one of the first banks to upgrade its office to branch status, allowing it to start taking domestic deposits from corporate and retail clients.

This meant that the bank, which had previously been limited to accepting foreign client deposits in New York, could now also accept domestic deposits. It also gained some legal advantages and the much-needed authorization to carry out all banking transactions as a result – alongside greater independence from foreign funds which reduced currency risk.

1944

Union Bank of Switzerland Takes Over Creditanstalt in Lucerne

Union Bank of Switzerland expanded its presence in central Switzerland by acquiring Creditanstalt in Lucerne (founded in 1872). Nearly another 20 years elapsed before SBC opened its first location in the city of lights, a branch which started its operations in 1963.

Today, the UBS Lucerne branch is located on Bahnhofplatz. The first premises of its predecessor were located on Kapellplatz and later on Schwanenplatz.

  • Kapellplatz
  • Union Bank of Switzerland, Lucerne Kapellplatz
  • Union Bank of Switzerland, Lucerne Schwanenplatz
  • Schwanenplatz office
  • Schwanenplatz office. Counter hall

Kapellplatz

The building of Union Bank of Switzerland’s new office in Lucerne had been the headquarters of Creditanstalt in Lucerne since 1881....

The photo was taken in 1944, the year Union Bank of Switzerland purchased the property.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, photographer unknown

Union Bank of Switzerland, Lucerne Kapellplatz

UBS AG, Historical Archive

Union Bank of Switzerland, Lucerne Schwanenplatz

In 1958, Union Bank of Switzerland relocated to a new building on Schwanenplatz. This photo was taken shortly after the bank moved in.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, photographer Friebel, Sursee

Schwanenplatz office

A glimpse of an open-plan office in 1964. One of the stations of the pneumatic tube system can be seen on the right in the foreground.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, photographer Friebel, Sursee

Schwanenplatz office

In 1964, the counter hall had a minimalist look with a generously-sized waiting area.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, photographer Friebel, Sursee

1947

Introduction of punched-card technology

Punched cards for mechanical data processing were first used in the US census in 1890. Almost 50 years were to pass before the technology developed by American engineer Herman Hollerith made the leap across the Atlantic, where it was deployed for data collection and storage by our two predecessor institutions, Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) and Union Bank of Switzerland. The first transition involved only mechanization; for internal use, the results of entries and accounts were punched, checked, and stacked. Our predecessor banks then gradually replaced traditional account books with their first machine-readable data storage.

  • The traditional accounting book’s replacement - the punched card
  • Punching machines
  • The punched-card department
  • The transition to magnetic tape UNIVAC UCT

The traditional accounting book’s replacement: the punched card

In the securities, coupon and current account sectors, the punched card procedure was used to complete time-consuming administrative tasks, as well as other standard tasks....

Traditional systems, such as punching, sorting, shuffling, card-reading, reproducing and tabulating machines made up the first generation of punched card systems. Many intermediate operations had to be done manually in these systems. The individual cards were still manually taken out of the massive punched card indexes for the daily mutations.

Union Bank of Switzerland most frequently used Remington Rand or UNIVAC cards, which stored data at six bits in two rows of 45 digits with round holes. These cards were used to prepare computer programs, as well as for storing data in bulk.

UBS AG, Historical Archive

Noisy punching machines replace fountain pens and inkwells

A family of specialized office machines was developed. It involved punching punched cards, then checking, reading, printing lists, and punching the cards once again....

Large tabulating machines read, stored, calculated and printed mechanically; operated and controlled by nothing more than a mechanical programming box.

The photo shows the Zurich punched-card department of Union Bank of Switzerland in 1958.

The punched-card department

With the completely new machine park moving into the premises of our predecessor banks, new roles and occupations emerged, such as maintenance technician and data typist....

The more contemporary systems, such as the IBM-1401 systems (at SBC) and the UNIVAC systems from Remington Rand (at Union Bank of Switzerland), which included a computer, a printer, and a magnetic tape unit, appeared in the early 1960s, unlocking entirely new fields of application. They fully automated entire functional chains that had previously been distributed among various units – and thus became symbolic of the computer (see first computer, 1956).

The transition to magnetic tape

Starting in 1959, UCT-I machines began taking the place of UNIVAC U-120 tube computers in Zurich and Geneva....

These "grandly conceived data processing machines," as the Union Bank of Switzerland personnel magazine put it, significantly reduced the time required for account balancing statements. Magnetic tape units were gradually added to data centers, starting in 1961. As a result, it was now possible to process and print addresses, conditions, balances, and quarterly sales all at once. As a result, in addition to current accounts, electronic processing was also used to process applications for securities, coupons and savings accounts.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, Photographer Wolf-Bender’s heirs, Zurich

1956

The bank’s first computer

With the commissioning of the UNIVAC 120 type from Remington Rand at the start of 1956, Union Bank of Switzerland entered the computer era. The 1,400-kilogram machine’s programmability, mastery of the four fundamental functions and ability to electrically buffer outcomes made it revolutionary. It was capable of handling both the calculation of deposit balances and coupon settlements, and it did so much faster than its mechanical predecessors. However, each operation was recalculated backward for control reasons. With an order for the IBM 1401/7070 five years later, SBC also ushered in the era of electronic data processing.

  • First computer UNIVAC 120
  • First computer UNIVAC 120
  • UNIVAC 120

The tube computer ushers in a new era of data processing

Computing was still done using mechanical calculator technology and precise mechanics prior to the invention of the first computer.

The UNIVAC 120

The first computer at Union Bank of Switzerland significantly sped up calculation processing thanks to its more than 2,000 electron tubes, including 612 thyratrons for 12 ten-digit numbers.

Pioneering role in real-life use

Union Bank of Switzerland was one of the first banks to use industrial computer technology....

The UNIVAC 120 was still programmed using cable-plug connections, and because of the tangled cables that resulted, it was also known as "spaghetti programming".

1958

The drive-in bank

In the 1950s, cars became synonymous with progress and the economic boom, but that wasn’t all: they were also the pride of the whole family. Everything had to be reachable from inside the vehicle, ideally from the driver’s seat. Union Bank of Switzerland opening Switzerland’s first drive-in counter, at its Zurich Wiedikon city branch, in June 1958 generated a huge buzz. However, the drive-in bank proved to be only a fleeting success, unlike the cash dispensers (ATMs) introduced some years later. The last drive-in bank branch had closed by the early 1980s.

  • Bank counter for cars
  • Bank counter for cars
  • The end of drive-in banks
  • The boom before the oil price shock
  • The most modern technical equipment

To the bank counter – by car

Clients were able to pull up in front of a staffed bank counter in their own cars and use an intercom system to withdraw cash or handle other financial transactions while still seated.

Practical and popular

Electric sliding drawers and pneumatic tube connections to the bank branch made it easy and convenient for clients to withdraw and deposit money from their accounts, discuss different account and investment options, and purchase gold coins, gold bars and gasoline coupons, as well as exchange currencies and perform other banking transactions....

There was one switch for right-hand drive vehicles in addition to the four for left-hand drive vehicles.

UBS AG, Historical Archive

Lack of space and congestion: the end of drive-in banks

The 1970s saw an increase in the level of traffic in city centers, in line with the use of private cars....

This trend signaled the demise of the ground-breaking drive-in banks over the medium term. They migrated more and more to the suburbs, where capacity was under-utilized and client frequency was relatively low.

UBS AG, Historical Archive

The boom before the oil price shock

The expanded drive-in bank at the headquarters of Union Bank of Switzerland opened at the end of February 1972....

As a result, there were three drive-in banks located in the Zurich central business district alone. With this approach, the bank met the growing demand from consumers for speedy banking operations that didn’t require them to look for and pay for parking.

The most modern technical equipment

The employee newspaper highlighted the drive-in banks’ cutting-edge technology, which allowed for flexibility in handling client complaints and offering services: intercoms, telephone receivers, cash drawers, television transmissions of account sheets, stock exchange television, pneumatic tube systems and every security system imaginable at the time, such as bulletproof glass.

1960

Opening of the new Swiss Bank Corporation building on Paradeplatz

After a period of construction lasting more than ten years, on 23 June 1960 Swiss Bank Corporation officially opened its new office on Paradeplatz. As long ago as the early 1930s the bank had run a competition for ideas for extending this office, or even building an entirely new one, in which 14 architects’ practices had participated. The winner was Otto Rudolf Salvisberg, Professor of Architecture at ETH Zurich. His work showed that only a new building could meet all the requirements. However, due to the depression, the outbreak of World War II and the resulting shortage of building materials, the actual construction project was delayed by decades. Since Otto R. Salvisberg died long before construction could begin, his son-in-law Roland Rohn took over the job of finalizing the plans. Among other things, he was responsible for the Modernist, now listed, façade.

  • SBV Paradeplatz Zürich
  • Headquarters of Swiss Bank Corporation, Paradeplatz in Zürich
  • Relief sculpture entitled The Work, by Swiss sculptor Franz Fischer
  • The vast circular banking hall
  • Simple and functional interior
  • Mural by the Swiss artist Alois Carigiet called Reichtum des Lebens (The Richness of Life)
  • Offices in the 1960s

Video of the demolition and the new building

The first part of the documentary gives an overview of the first stage of the project, up to the repositioning of the building line for the natural stone facade in 1952. The middle part shows the second stage, from the demolition of the Usteri House in 1953 to the demolition of the dome and the moving of the Helvetia statue in the winter of 1956....

The last part of the film is about the third stage, from the completion of the 13-meter deep foundations in 1957 up to the work of sculptor Franz Fischer on the relief sculpture above the entrance.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, video futage Foto Bachmann, Dreikönigsstrasse 8, Zurich

Dawn of the modern era

1956, seven years after work started, saw the start of the third stage of this major project and the one that would have the biggest impact on the appearance of Paradeplatz: the demolition of the palatial domed building that dated from 1899....

In its place, over the next four years, appeared a long building, slightly curved where it faces Paradeplatz, with an offset main entrance and a column of projecting windows, two features that highlight the corner of the building.

Picture from around 1965.

A contemporary architectural statement

The new Zurich administrative headquarters of Swiss Bank Corporation, with its severe, minimalist, grid-like facade, facing on to Bahnhofstrasse, is strikingly different from the then Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (later Credit Suisse) office and the other buildings around it on Paradeplatz....

Its uniqueness is derived not only from the modern facade design but also from the use of Solothurn limestone in varying shades.

Picture from around 1964.

Baugeschichtliches Archiv, photographer unknown

Work in chiseled stone

The simple lines of the facade are dominated by the mighty relief sculpture entitled “The Work", by Swiss sculptor Franz Fischer. The imposing sculpture looms over the main entrance, it is eight meters long, two meters high and weighs 50 tonnes....

It depicts a building site, with a group of horses in the center, flanked by a few workers. The artist was seeking to symbolize the way the bank’s staff are at the service of its clients and the whole economy.

Picture from around 1964.

Baugeschichtliches Archiv, photographer unknown

A contemporary and cosmopolitan aesthetic

The original plans envisaged a central main entrance leading to two banking halls. When the building lines were changed, Roland Rohn, who took over as the architect, came up with a modified design in which the portal was moved to the left-hand side of the facade, where it was clearly visible from everywhere on Paradeplatz....

The vast circular banking hall was positioned in an inner courtyard with a roof made of glass blocks, and this became the centerpiece of the public part of the building.

Picture from around 1960.

UBS AG, Historical Archive, photographer Beringer & Pampaluchi, Zurich

Simple and functional interior

In the customer accounting office on the fourth floor, the partition walls were made of mobile components that could be combined or dismantled as required. Sound absorbing panels were fitted to the ceilings and window surrounds to reduce machine noise.

Art on and inside the building

In the main meeting room on the top floor is a mural by the Swiss artist Alois Carigiet called “Reichtum des Lebens” (The Richness of Life).

The charm of offices in the 1960s

Apart from the prestigious offices of the senior managers, the focus when designing the working areas was solely on functionality, economy and wood as the main material used. Even the rows of Telex machines or teleprinters (the predecessors to fax and email) were clad in wood.

1960

Rapid expansion abroad

In the post-war years between 1945 and 1959, the total assets of Swiss Bank Corporation increased steadily, from CHF 1.8 billion to CHF 4.3 billion. But the pace of development was to accelerate significantly around 1960. In just 10 years, between 1960 and 1970, Swiss Bank Corporation’s total assets grew more than fivefold – from CHF 5.2 billion to CHF 28.1 billion francs. This growth was primarily down to two factors. First, increased trade with the newly rebuilt Europe brought Switzerland, undamaged as it was, an unprecedented economic boom that continued uninterrupted until the first oil crisis, in 1973. This boom contributed to substantial deposit inflows and growing demand for credit. Secondly, at the international level the creation of the European money market and capital markets facilitated the expansion of financial markets.

  • Rio de Janeiro
  • Sao Paulo
  • Portrait of Samuel Schweizer
  • Swiss Bank Corporation in Asia
  • Map of representative offices, subsidiaries, branches, overseas organization of SBC

Expansion continues in Rio de Janeiro

In the 1960s, the boom at Swiss Bank Corporation led to a rapid expansion of international business. Until the early 1950s, apart from its offices in England and the US and a handful of subsidiaries or other interests, the bank operated only agencies abroad....

But the number of those agencies, and of the bank’s overseas branches, increased rapidly in the following decade. In 1953, Swiss Bank Corporation opened its first South American branch, in Rio de Janeiro, with the second following, in São Paulo, just six years later. These launches signalled the start of a further period of global expansion. At Union Bank of Switzerland, this expansion was slower to kick in, but got under way in the 1970s.

Six branches in Latin America

As time went by, further branches were established in South America: in Buenos Aires in 1958, São Paulo in 1959, Lima in 1960, Mexico City in 1963 and Caracas in 1970....

This expansion throughout Latin America brought Swiss Bank Corporation new business and new connections, including links with European and American parent undertakings of companies based on the continent.

The expansion into Central America was a logical decision. At the time, Mexico’s stable currency, with no transfer difficulties, and its rapid market growth offered the bank good prospects for capital investment and foreign trade relations.

Promoter of the expansion

In 1962, Samuel Schweizer, a former member of Swiss Bank Corporation’s general management, was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors....

During his 10 years in office, Schweizer was the driving force and mastermind behind the enormous expansion of the bank’s business network and the range of services it offered. In his role and as a member of the Board of Directors of a number of major Swiss industrial companies and of Crédit Commercial de France, he fostered relationships with key client groups.

Swiss Bank Corporation puts Asia on its map ...

As business transactions with Asia intensified, Swiss Bank Corporation’s first Asian branch was opened in 1964 in the economic hub of Hong Kong, where around 70 banks were already operating. Singapore followed in 1970, and a year later Tokyo got its own branch.

... Africa, the Middle East and ...

Despite the political tension and the latent state of war in the Middle East, Beirut had proven to be a useful place for managing business relations in the region. Toward the end of 1969, Swiss Bank Corporation opened a representative office in the Lebanese capital. A year earlier, the bank had sent a representative to Johannesburg, in the Republic of South Africa....

... Australia, as the fifth and final continent

Although the bank had had business contacts and personal connections with Australia for a long time, the country was not yet served onshore. Australian bonds entered the Swiss capital market through Swiss Bank Corporation. In 1969 Swiss Bank Corporation Australia Pty. was founded in Sydney and, separately from that entity, Swiss Bank Corporation Finance Pty Ltd. was founded in Melbourne, specifically for merchant banking.

1962

First staff restaurants at both banks

In Switzerland, nearly one in eight people now eats in a communal catering establishment once a day. Staff restaurants have had a significant impact on lunch-break eating habits. Large industrial companies started providing canteens for their employees in the 1920s as shift working was more widely introduced, and in the 1960s, with continuous working hours becoming the norm, more and more large service companies also began to offer staff catering. Within a few years, the short meal break in the staff restaurant had replaced the two-hour lunch break at home.

  • First staff restaurant in the new annex at the bank's head office
  • Menu
  • A voucher card with the set meals
  • Canteen on the 4th floor, the Union Bank of Switzerland staff restaurant at Bahnhofstrasse 45
  • Information Culinarium Dental hygiene in Bern and Aarau
  • Snackeria Banhofstrasse 45 Zurich, dating from 1983
  • SV canteen at SBC Zurich in 1963
  • Staff restaurant in the neo-baroque “Goldener Löwe” mansion in the bank's hometown of Basel

First staff restaurants open

In 1961 Union Bank of Switzerland founded a subsidiary, Culinarium AG, to handle this aspect of its day-to-day work. In the bank’s anniversary year (1962), the new subsidiary opened its first staff restaurant in the new annex at the bank’s head office....

In Zurich alone 1,200 meals were served every day in the restaurant’s first year, catering to a workforce of around 1,800 employees.

In the same year, Swiss Bank Corporation also opened its first staff restaurant, on Paradeplatz in Zurich, with a panoramic view of the city. Unlike Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation brought in an external caterer to run its staff restaurant: the non-profit organization Schweizer Verband Soldatenwohl (the Swiss Association for Soldiers’ Welfare, today’s SV Group), founded in 1914, saw to the culinary well-being of the bank’s employees.

Canteens with service

Diners were offered three set meals each day (including a diet meal) at CHF 2 each; a light meal cost CHF 1.50. To put this in context, the average monthly pay of a bank clerk in those days was CHF 1,400.vUnlike in other large catering establishments, where diners served themselves at the buffet, here they were served at the table by waiting staff.

Organization of the food service operation

At the beginning of the week, Union Bank of Switzerland employees were given a voucher card with the set meals that they could order for each day.

Canteen on the 4th floor

In 1962, the Union Bank of Switzerland staff restaurant at Bahnhofstrasse 45 was an attractively laid-out and tastefully furnished dining establishment, and was divided into three rooms to enable congestion-free serving even at peak times. From the restaurant, diners could enjoy an unrivalled view of the city.

Oral hygiene a top priority

To encourage dental hygiene, special booths were set up in the Culinarium canteens in Bern and Aarau where diners could brush their teeth after lunch using the electric toothbrushes provided. Obviously, diners had to provide their own brush heads.

High standards

With an average visit frequency of 50–60% of employees, the staff restaurants were very popular. The Culinarium kitchen staff have won multiple awards and consistent recognition at international exhibitions of culinary art.

Photo of the Snackeria Banhofstrasse 45 Zurich, dating from 1983.

Popular lunch option in the Bank

One year after the move to continuous working hours, most people were enthusiastic about the canteen lunches. Initially, many employees found it difficult to stay away from their habitual family lunch, or going without their usual afternoon nap, reported SBC’s staff magazine “Unter uns” in 1963, along with “Although our dining room or coffee area can never fully replace the cosy familiarity of home, these bright, airy and sunny rooms are perfect for having a meal and lingering over coffee and a friendly chat with colleagues; they make a very pleasant place to relax.”

Photo of the SV canteen at SBC Zurich in 1963.

A prestigious canteen in Basel

In 1964, Swiss Bank Corporation opened another staff restaurant in the neo-baroque “Goldener Löwe” mansion in the bank’s hometown of Basel....

By taking up residence in this prestigious property, the firm, now almost 100 years old, sought to present a reflection of its successful growth. Here, too, the Schweizer Verband Volksdienst (the successor organization to the Swiss Association for Soldiers’ Welfare), which had started out providing meals to soldiers in an alcohol-free setting during World War I, provided the catering for the bank’s employees.

1965

The first TV commercial

For the first ten years of its existence Swiss television was commercial-free. On 1 February 1965, the first commercial break was shown. Union Bank of Switzerland was among the first companies to use the advertising medium, along with Pepsi, Ovomaltine and Opel even though there had initially been a debate at the bank over using TV advertising. The TV commercial was intended by some of the bank’s marketing experts to demonstrate its progressiveness, but detractors were worried that the new medium wouldn’t be appropriate for “the position and reputation of a large bank.” SBC aired its first TV commercial in 1967.

Ascona, filming location for the first Union Bank of Switzerland commercial

Television commercials were first broadcast in the US in 1941 and in West Germany in 1956, but Swiss television was not given permission to show them until the early 1960s....

The moment finally arrived in Switzerland on 1 February 1965. Union Bank of Switzerland was one of the first advertisers, with a commercial that was set in a café in Ascona next to Lake Maggiore. In the commercial, an affluent traveler extols the virtues of the bank’s superior services.

SRF: The first commercial break on Swiss televisionUBS AG, Historical Archive

In 1967, SBC aired its first TV commercial

UBS AG, Historical Archive