Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the European banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

UBS, Société Générale and Barclays have become the latest banks to reap a windfall from the market turmoil unleashed by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as traders helped power the lenders to better than expected first-quarter profits.

Revenues at UBS’s markets business surged 32 per cent to a record $2.5bn, SocGen’s trading revenues climbed 11 per cent to €1.76bn, while Barclays reported a 16 per cent increase to £2.7bn.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump’s erratic tariff policy has dominated global stock, bond and currency markets, triggering volatility as investors contend with the fallout from his attempt to remake the global trading order.

UBS said on Wednesday: “Markets are likely to remain sensitive to new developments, both positive and negative, which are likely to lead to further spikes in volatility.”

The stellar trading performance helped the three banks’ profits surpass expectations for a quarter, cushioning the blow from a slowdown in dealmaking in the period.

UBS reported net profit of $1.7bn in the quarter, surpassing the $1.3bn forecast by analysts, but down from $1.8bn in the same period a year ago. Revenues were flat at $12.6bn.

SocGen’s net income more than doubled to €1.6bn while profits at Barclays rose to £1.9bn, up from £1.6bn a year ago, exceeding forecasts.

The trio join Wall Street’s biggest banks in riding the market volatility. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup together generated almost $37bn in trading revenues in the quarter.

At Soc Gen, the equities trading business stood out, with revenues climbing more than a fifth to a record €1.06bn. Barclays’ fixed-income traders delivered a 21 per cent jump in revenues while revenues at its equities rose 9 per cent.

The strong showing from UBS’s trading business overshadowed its global wealth management business, the bank’s biggest profit engine in recent years.

The division attracted $32bn in new assets in the period, with the unit’s pre-tax profit of $1.4bn driven by higher fees.

Chief executive Sergio Ermotti said: “The power and scale of our diversified global franchise, coupled with our continued focus on clients, drove strong business momentum in the quarter and net new inflows in our asset-gathering businesses.”

Ermotti, who returned to lead the bank’s integration of former rival Credit Suisse in 2023, said the process was “on track”. UBS is in the midst of switching more than 1mn Swiss retail clients on to its systems, one of the most complicated parts of the integration.