The board of UBS has accepted the resignation of chief executive Oswald Grübel after the Swiss bank lost $2.3 billion (€1.7 billion) in alleged rogue trading and said it had appointed Sergio Ermotti to replace him for now.

Mr Ermotti, a 51 year-old from Switzerland's Italian-speaking region of Ticino, joined UBS in April from UniCredit as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Before joining UniCredit in 2005, he worked at Merrill Lynch for 18 years.

The board said in a statement it had asked management to accelerate an overhaul of the investment bank already under way "concentrating on advisory, capital markets, and client flow and solutions businesses".

UBS's board meeting, one of four regular meetings per year, had originally been due to end yesterday ahead of the UBS-sponsored Singapore Formula One motor racing Grand Prix tomorrow, when executives will be trying to reassure big clients.

But deliberations continued by conference call after the board left Singapore yesterday with some members headed back to Switzerland, sources told Reuters.

Reuters