Gruebel said that UBS Wealth Management Americas "will be a very profitable business going forward...but like with any business, we have to bring it into shape, and that's what we have done the last few months.
"It is a good business to be in, even with a high cost base, because it is very predictable, its costs are predictable, and if you run it properly, it can run quite well," he said.
The restructuring costs of $134.5 million included $17.5 million in personnel expenses and the remainder in real-estate expenses, as the division renegotiated leases, combined some branch offices and attempted to sublet extra space in a poor real-estate market.
With these costs, the second quarter resulted in a pre-tax loss of $61.7 million, following a $14 million profit in the first quarter.
Excluding restructuring expenses, the group brought a pre-tax profit of $72.8 million, which is still a long way from its goal of roughly $1 billion.
In its first-quarter earnings, UBS warned that these restructuring expenses would hit its books in the second quarter, but UBS has made no indication that it will incur similar costs in the third quarter.
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