UBS India’s quiet rise as a strategic powerhouse
A decade of purpose, innovation, and impact — UBS India’s rise in the GCC arena
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Last Updated: Oct 16, 2025, 11:02 IST4 min
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In just a decade, UBS India has emerged as a powerhouse in the GCC industry, evolving from a back-end support hub into a cutting-edge innovation and capability hub, engineering solutions that power UBS’s global ambitions.
"Our journey in India is a story of growth, strategy, and impact. With world-class talent and a culture of innovation, UBS India is shaping platforms and solutions that set new standards for financial services worldwide.”
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Matthias SchackeHead India Service Company and Group Operations & Technology Office India
The silent revolution in India’s GCC Landscape
India’s rise in the Global Capability Center (GCC) landscape over the past two decades has been nothing short of transformative. Originally conceived as cost-efficient back offices for multinational corporations, GCCs in India have evolved into strategic engines of innovation driving global R&D, AI-led transformation, and enterprise resilience.Today, India hosts over 1,700 GCCs; more than any other country globally, employing 1.66 million professionals and contributing approximately $64 billion to the economy, nearly 1.8% of the national GDP. But this is more than an economic story - It’s a reimagining of India’s talent landscape, with GCCs now at the heart of breakthroughs in AI, cybersecurity, advanced analytics, and next-gen financial innovation.
The shift has been particularly profound in financial services. Leading global banks have discovered that India offers far more than cost arbitrage—it’s a regulatory sandbox, innovation lab, and strategic hub rolled into one.
From scale to solutions
As one of the world’s leading financial institutions, when UBS opened its office in Pune in 2015, it wasn’t just chasing cost efficiencies—it was making a deliberate bet: that India could become a capability hub where the future of banking would not just be delivered but co-created.A decade later, that conviction has paid off.
What began in Pune in 2015 expanded to Mumbai in 2017 and Hyderabad in 2020; as the India portfolio grew to include functions like technology, finance, risk, compliance, digital marketing, operations, legal, HR, procurement, and audit—making India one of the most diversified hubs in the UBS network. Today, it houses 34% of global technology teams and 42% of the global finance workforce.
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The integration of Credit Suisse’s service entities into UBS India, which started with the global acquisition of the financial giant in March 2023, was completed in India this April. This milestone brought together a 24,000-strong team across Pune, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, making India one of UBS’s largest global locations, accounting for 16% of its worldwide headcount.
But more than size, this story is about capability. Today, UBS India drives global priorities across engineering, operations, and transformation.
“As a combined firm, we’re better positioned to drive the firm's strategic priorities and deliver greater value for our firm, our clients, and our communities”, said Sameer Chothani, Head of Technology Services and Integration Lead, UBS India
India’s talent advantage
India offers one of the deepest and most dynamic talent ecosystems in the world. With over 1,700 GCCs employing 1.66 million professionals, decades of exposure to global BFSI players, a thriving startup culture, and 1.5 million engineering graduates each year, India has built a workforce that is both highly skilled and future ready. This foundation gives firms like UBS the ability to scale with depth.Sustaining the growth of a GCC requires more than just recruitment; it calls for a people-first approach that balances opportunities for experience and exposure. At UBS, the career programs, global networks, and industry partnerships empower employees to take charge of their professional journeys. Initiatives like Career Comeback for professionals returning from breaks, the Veterans Associate Program for armed forces professionals who wish to transition into corporate roles, and the Graduate program for fresh talent ensures diverse perspectives that drive delivery excellence.
Purpose beyond the workplace
UBS India’s culture values not just performance, but purpose. And that purpose extends into the communities where its people live and work.UBS Vidyarthi, the flagship social impact program, aims to break intergenerational poverty through education. It supports children from early care to employment readiness, with a bold goal of reaching two million young people by 2034. Thousands have already benefited from better schooling, skill-building, and career pathways.
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The UBS Athletics Kids Cup, with Olympian Neeraj Chopra as brand ambassador, promotes physical literacy and building healthy habits in schools nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of children have participated, encouraged to move through running, jumping, and throwing.
Together with employee volunteering efforts and grant programs, UBS India’s social initiatives have already touched millions of lives, creating a ripple effect of opportunity and empowerment.
The new GCC playbook: Depth over distance
UBS India’s journey offers a fresh lens for global firms reimagining their capability centers not as cost hubs, but as strategic engines.- Capability over capacity: Expansion in Hyderabad reflects a deliberate focus on deepening expertise in AI, data, and platform engineering which is more than just expanding headcount.
- Leadership at every level: Structured learning paths and cross-functional mobility are shaping a generation of future-ready leaders.
- Global impact by design: Teams in India are entrenched deeply across all business divisions, functions, and geographies, enabling multi-perspective solutions to similar challenges.
The next chapter
As UBS India enters its second decade, it is setting its sights higher and accelerating its ambitions.The focus now is deepening AI and technology leadership and transversal collaboration to deliver enhanced client experience and innovation on a global scale.
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First Published: Oct 16, 2025, 11:02
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