NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As part of its ongoing commitment to service excellence for both plan sponsors and participants, UBS Wealth Management Americas, a subsidiary of UBS Group AG, has developed a new feature for its Equity Plan Advisory Services (EPAS) offering: the Modeling and Forecasting module in Financials Online, UBS's web-based financial reporting and analysis tool for plan sponsors, which supports corporate clients’ compliance with accounting rules for share-based compensation under FASB ASC 718.
This enhancement follows several recent innovative releases, including the UBS One Source Mirror, a proprietary co-browsing solution that allows both the plan sponsor and the UBS service team to assist participants with their questions about the UBS One Source platform by viewing, in real time, what they see on their computer screens or mobile devices.
The new modeling and forecasting capabilities in Financials Online offer an additional enhancement to UBS's robust financial reporting platform, which not only aids corporate plan sponsors with ASC 718 compliance, but also allows them to forecast future periods, including expense and earnings per share values. UBS Wealth Management Americas has hosted several well-attended plan sponsor training sessions as part of the product release.
Streamlining the forecasting process to improve client experience
When issuing equity compensation to employees, plan sponsors need to project the associated impact and expenses—whether it's a grant that's been approved but not yet issued or a new award type that's being considered under ASC 718. The new Financials Online Modeling and Forecasting module allows clients to do so with unprecedented ease. UBS's tool lets users model test grants directly in the production environment while maintaining rigid data integrity controls, whereas several external solutions offer a separate test environment (or "sandbox") that is limited to a copy of their production data. This streamlines the forecasting process by cutting out a cumbersome and time-consuming step. And because the module uses real-time data instead of stale data, it helps ensure that projections reflect the most up-to-date information. In addition, this tool is flexible and scalable, allowing clients to experiment with a variety of scenarios when projecting the impact of new grants.
"The new Financials Online Modeling and Forecasting module reflects the level of innovation that can be achieved when there is strong collaboration between UBS and our clients to address a key need," said Thierry Vo, Director of Strategy for EPAS. "This new capability allows plan sponsors to forecast, in real time, the financial impact relating to the cost of issuing different types and amounts of equity to their employees, as different granting scenarios are contemplated by Compensation Committees, Human Resources and Finance. Feedback from our clients has been overwhelmingly positive."
A leader in the business
UBS Equity Plan Advisory Services, part of UBS Financial Services Inc., is dedicated to helping companies and their employees maximize the value of equity awards. As part of our commitment, we provide education and access to advice to participants in the U.S. and many countries around the world—from broad-based employees to executives—that are rooted in our broad experience and insights as a leading wealth management firm. Serving more than one million participants in over 150 countries at 170 companies, we offer customized plan administration and transaction solutions based on specific issuer needs through both full and partial administration services.
Notes to Editors
About UBS Group AG
UBS is committed to providing private, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland, with superior financial advice and solutions while generating attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders. Its strategy centers on its Wealth Management and Wealth Management Americas businesses and its leading universal bank in Switzerland, complemented by its Global Asset Management business and its Investment Bank. These businesses share three key characteristics: they benefit from a strong competitive position in their targeted markets, are capital-efficient, and offer a superior structural growth and profitability outlook. UBS's strategy builds on the strengths of all of its businesses and focuses its efforts on areas in which it excels, while seeking to capitalize on the compelling growth prospects in the businesses and regions in which it operates. Capital strength is the foundation of its success.
UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 countries, with about 35% of its employees working in the Americas, 36% in Switzerland, 17% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 12% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs about 60,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
