UBS Group AG has cut its Asia sustainability office by half in recent months, part of a wider global retreat from dedicated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) operations that has followed the bank’s integration of Credit Suisse, Bloomberg reported.

The Zurich-based lender reduced its seven-person Asia sustainability team to three, with the departures including three Hong Kong staff, two of them executive directors, the news agency said, citing people familiar with the matter. Globally, the chief sustainability office has shrunk to roughly 35 employees from more than 100 in mid-2023.

The cuts extend beyond the core sustainability office. UBS dismantled its Sustainability and Impact Institute team, which focused on thought leadership, in December 2024, affecting about five employees, and reduced its roughly 10-person ESG data team to a single staffer as specialists were reassigned elsewhere, Bloomberg said.

The bank’s social impact and philanthropy function has been cut to about 86 employees from roughly 150 before the Credit Suisse integration, though at least 40 staff were redeployed internally. About a dozen affected employees in London and Zurich were moved to chief operating, marketing, and government affairs roles, according to the report. 

The Asia cuts included executive directors Esther Tsang and Fang Zhu, along with associate directors Samantha So and Umadevi Dassaye, based in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively, Bloomberg reported. Valerie Lau, the region’s head of Group Sustainability and Impact, was let go in September, according to the people. The remaining three-person group includes Tasos Zavitsanakis, a former Asia-Pacific co-head of sustainable finance, and associate director Aubin Huret.

Separately, Brendan Tu, the Asia-Pacific head of AI & Sustainable Markets Advisory, has resigned to pursue an opportunity outside the bank and will be succeeded by Mathieu Brand, according to the news agency. 

The retrenchment comes amid a broader retreat by global banks from dedicated ESG strategies, driven in part by shifting U.S. politics and a regulatory deregulation push. Goldman Sachs removed diversity targets from a regulatory filing last year, HSBC Holdings Plc pushed back its emissions-reduction targets, and Standard Chartered Bank has flagged difficulty meeting some climate goals, according to the report. 

UBS exited the Net Zero Banking Alliance after similar departures by major peers.