UBS says that it will close its investment bank’s institutional municipal securities business by winding it down, rather than trying to sell it.

The exit of the institutional municipal securities business is part of UBS’s ongoing efforts to reposition its Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities business to focus on core business areas. UBS said it explored a number of alternatives to exit the business and determined that because of the complexities of selling it in the current market, and limited market capacity for a franchise of this size, a sale of the business was unlikely in the near term.

Following the exit of the institutional municipals business, UBS will no longer offer underwriting and structuring services to municipal clients. The firm’s municipal securities secondary market trading business will be transferred from UBS Investment Bank into UBS Wealth Management Americas in order to facilitate the trading of municipal securities for private clients. Along with assuming responsibility for secondary trading efforts, that division will introduce an open architecture platform for new issues and expand its municipal research team.

“Municipal securities are an important part of many of our clients’ portfolios,” said Jim Hausmann, Head of Transaction Products, UBS Wealth Management Americas. “With this integration, our clients will benefit from an increased number of people dedicated specifically to their municipal securities needs. Through an open architecture platform, our clients will have access to a broad of supply of both new issues and secondary securities.”

UBS said it will begin to work with its municipal clients to transfer their business in an orderly fashion and expects to complete the exit from the institutional municipals business over the next few months.