Top Firm Accused Of Indiscriminately Downsizing Investment Bank
More in BUSINESS NEWS
back-up- Top Firm Really On The Ropes Now
- Concerns Grow Over Big Bank Failures (One Or Two 'Whoppers' Likely)
- The Worst Financial Crisis Poll
- The 'Doughnut' Bonus Poll - The Results
- Bob Diamond's Acquisition Plans, Fortis, Hedge Fund Problems
- 40 Firms Now Joined Our DirectConnect Recruitment Community
- 12 Months Of The Credit Crunch - The Stories That Made The News
- Caption Competition
- Featured Recruiter - Finance Professionals City
- I Wanna Job - Can You Help Me ? (Updated)
- My Firm's Hiring Freeze Is Tip Of The Iceberg
- UBS Investment Bank - A True Dilemma
- Click Here To Register For Free News E-Mail Alerts
- Lehman Expected To Post Another Big Loss
- Pressure Grows On Goldman
- That Steve McLaren 'Double Dutch' Interview
- Life's Most Popular - July 2008
- Another Major Firm's Going Belly Up
- Top Firm Imposes Hiring Freeze
- UBS & 'The Smoking Gun'
- Q2 Profits / Losses Per Employee - League Table
- You Know You Work In The Financial Markets When...
- Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche, KKR, Lehman, Merrill, RBS
- Confessions Of A Subprime Lender - An Insider's Tale
- Best Modern US President / British Prime Minister - The Results
- Auction-Rate Securities Debacle - How's Your Firm Faring ? (Updated)
- A Total Eclipse Of The Brand
- Capital Raised Per Firm Employee - League Table
- Goldman's Third-Quarter Could Be 'One Of Its Worst As A Public Company'
- Latest Other Market News In Brief
- Possibly The Most Suspicious Trades Of All Time
- Trader Gets $300m To Stay With Firm
- UBS Announces Q2 Loss, Will Separate Investment Bank
- JPMorgan Loses $1.5bn In Last Few Weeks
- The Best Of Our Readers' Stories
- Trader Fired Over His 'Saucy' Website
- The League Table Of Shame
- Top Firm May Still Sell Investment Banking Unit
- Dresdner Kleinwort - Uncertainty Comes With The Job Description
- Some Of This Year's Most-Read 'Funnies'
- Barclays, Citi, Refco, RBS, Schroders, SocGen, UBS
- $1bn Banker's Career In Tatters Over 'Indecent Proposal'
- Top Firm Client Told That 'Everyone' Is Leaving
- He Just Called To Say I'm Firing You
- The Greatest Trade Ever
- Q2 Profits - The Winners & The Losers (Updated)
- 'It's Important For Allianz To Get Rid Of Dresdner Kleinwort'
- Top Firm May Buy Back Up To $5bn In Auction-Rate Securities
- Goldman's Profit Outlook Slashed
- Discredited E-Mails Will Still Embarrass Top Firm
Related Content
- Top Firm May Still Sell Investment Banking Unit (11/08/2008)
- Top Firm CEO Rekindles Love Affair With His Investment Banking Unit (11/06/2008)
- Bank Boss Booed & Accused Of Running A 'Casino' (29/05/2008)
- Top Firm Says 'Enough' - No More Layoffs (03/08/2008)
- Top Firm Really On The Ropes Now (20/08/2008)
- Top Firm Said To Be 'Listening To Offers' (13/06/2008)
Rohner said: 'we no longer aim to offer everything to everyone in investment banking. We do not need an oversized balance sheet. We do not need an oversized inventory of trading portfolios. And we do not need an unnecessary concentration of risk'. Around 1,500 staff have already been laid-off in the investment banking unit, and the next round of layoffs, likely to start in May, looks like accounting for between another 2,200 - 2,500 staff.
The UBS CEO also told shareholders that 'today our problem positions are only about a third of what they were at the end of September'. Rohner also admitted that senior management responsible for the $37bn in asset writedowns the bank has taken in recent months missed the big picture. He said that 'most of our colleagues reviewed transactions, hedged risks, refined models and performed analyses with the best of intentions.....The problem was not a failure to appreciate complexity, but rather the opposite - it was a lack of simplicity and critical perspective which prevented the right questions from being asked while there was still time'.
Former UBS President Luqman Arnold, who heads up shareholder activist group Olivant Advisers, however, remains unsatisfied. He said: 'We are (still) concerned (that) the indiscriminate approach apparently being considered for downsizing the investment bank may damage its market-leading franchises, with unnecessary loss of significant shareholder value. We (also) remain concerned that UBS underestimates the complexity of the challenges it faces, given the limited strategic and risk experience of the supervisory board in the context of the global banking market'.
UBS shares have fallen some 56% over the course of the last year.
