Worked at S.G. Warburg in London? Your pension probably still exists. The name on your payslip may not.

If you worked in London for S.G. Warburg, SBC Warburg, Warburg Dillon Read, Swiss Bank Corporation, or Union Bank of Switzerland, this page is for you. They are all one trail now.

What happened

Swiss Bank Corporation bought the investment banking and securities operations of S.G. Warburg Group in 1995, and Dillon Read in 1997. On 29 June 1998 Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation merged to form UBS, and the investment bank, known as Warburg Dillon Read, became UBS Warburg (Source: UBS annual report on Form 20-F for 2000, SEC, read 20 October 2026).

Why the trail is hard

Two changes of owner since 1995, and several pension arrangements behind them. The schemes changed their names more than once, and older records still show names from the 1990s (Source: our reading of the government's pension contact register, read 20 October 2026).

Do I have a pension from my S.G. Warburg years?

It depends first on when you left. The law set a minimum, and a scheme could always be more generous than the law.

If you left after 6 April 1988 with 2 years or more of service, you very likely have a preserved pension, if you were in the scheme.

Sources: the age 26 and 5 year rule, Social Security Act 1973, Schedule 16, paragraph 6(1), read 20 October 2026, in force from 6 April 1975 (Social Security Act 1973 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1973, read 20 October 2026). The age condition ended on 1 January 1986 (Social Security Act 1985, section 1, read 20 October 2026, and Social Security Act 1985 (Commencement No. 2) Order 1985, read 20 October 2026). Five years became two with effect from 6 April 1988 (Social Security Act 1973, Schedule 16 as amended, note on the Social Security Act 1986, section 10, read 20 October 2026). Two years today, and 30 days for money purchase service that began on or after 1 October 2015 (Pension Schemes Act 1993, section 71, read 20 October 2026).

The free official route comes first

The UK government's free Pension Tracing Service gives you contact details for a workplace pension scheme from the name of an employer. It has a limit, in its own words: "This service will not tell you whether you have a pension, or what its value is." (Source: GOV.UK, Find pension contact details, read 20 October 2026.)

With an old City bank, the name is the hard part. The name on your payslip is rarely the name on the record today, and a search for the wrong name finds the wrong scheme or nothing you recognise. Our free pension check starts from your own work history.

Former colleagues

Groups on LinkedIn:

• Swiss Bank Corporation Alumni
• UBS Employee & Alumni Network

LinkedIn asks you to sign in before it shows a group, so we give the group names only, without member counts. We found no reunion reported in the press.

Frequently asked questions

Mercury Asset Management and Dillon Read: are they part of this trail? Not both. Mercury Asset Management went to Merrill Lynch at the end of 1997 (see our Merrill Lynch page). Dillon Read was a New York firm that joined in 1997.

Do you contact the pension scheme for me? No. We identify who holds the pension and give you what to send. You contact them yourself, and the pension stays yours throughout.

Is the government tracing service not enough? It is the right first step, and it costs nothing. It gives a contact for a scheme name you already have. It will not tell you whether you have a pension, and with S.G. Warburg the name you remember is not the name on the record today.

What if you find nothing? We say so in the report. The refund promise sits next to the order button above.

More of the City's vanished banks: Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, MeesPierson, and the A to Z of old names.