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UBS is exploring the possibility of setting up a new US CLO arranging business, according to several 9fin sources, but one source said no official decision has been made. A spokesperson for UBS declined to comment.

If a return to CLOs were to materialise then it would end a 12-year absence with the Zurich-headquartered bank having had a primary (and secondary) US CLO desk in the early days of the 2.0 era, from 2011-2013, according to 9fin data. Its last lead arranging credit was on AMMC XII, a 2013 American Money Management Company CLO, according to 9fin data.

UBS hired Tricia Hazelwood as head of global markets Americas in 2023 from MUFG, where she served as global head of structured products. Hazelwood developed and led the firm’s $60bn global structured products business, and also led MUFG Securities’ international structured products capital markets businesses, according to her LinkedIn. Hazelwood was at MUFG for 10 years before departing in 2023, and prior to that was at Credit Suisse for 16 years, becoming global head of structured products, before her departure in 2011.

Hazelwood was at MUFG when it set up its US CLO arranging business in 2014, according to 9fin data. Asif Khan led the CLO arranging business until he left for Natixis in 2023. Konstantin Kulev was promoted to the head of CLOs after Khan’s departure, before MUFG hired John Clements earlier this year to lead the CLO arranging business.

Recently UBS has regained exposure to the CLO market, albeit on the asset management side. When Credit Suisse folded in 2023, UBS incorporated renowned CLO manager, Credit Suisse Asset Management (now named UBS Asset Management) into its ecosystem. UBS AM has priced $21.9bn of US CLOs across 2024 and 2025, according to 9fin data, and has a global CLO AUM of $39.9bn, as of Q1 2025, which is third in the world.

UBS is a large leveraged loan underwriter so a move into CLO arranging would be a logical next step. In 2023, UBS was involved in the underwriting of $18.7bn of global syndicated loans, according to 9fin data. That shot up to $83.1bn in 2022 (10th place in the global league tables), and so far in 2025 it has been a bookrunner on $21.6bn of global leveraged loans, according to 9fin data.

A return to CLO arranging for UBS would have been inconceivable a few years ago. The bank had built a strong primary and secondary CLO business in the early 2010s, but in October 2012 it announced that it was cutting 10,000 jobs and winding down its fixed income business. Over the following months members of that CLO group were either let go, or they left for pastures new. Within a year of the announcement, UBS’s CLO syndication and structuring bankers had left, along with its head of primary CLOs and secondary CLOs.

Six months after the bank announced the cuts, UBS had cleared its CLO pipeline, printing a handful of deals it was mandated for. However, the bank agreed to step back from a $1bn US CLO it was due to arrange for Guggenheim. Citi stepped in to price that CLO at the end of 2012.

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