UBS warned of further big job losses in investment banking as the biggest European casualty of the US subprime crisis outlined plans to shrink the operations that contributed to its losing more than $37 billion on US credits since last summer.
Addressing shareholders in Basel, Marcel Rohner, chief executive, said further job cuts would be detailed next month. The announcement, which is expected to see bigger cuts than the 1,500 jobs lost since the subprime crisis, will accompany the group's first-quarter results on May 6th.
The new round of job reductions reflect UBS's determination to pull back from the proprietary trading that contributed to its massive writedowns and focus more on its powerhouse private banking franchise. That shift from ambitions to become one of the world's top investment banks to focusing on wealth management was underlined by Peter Kurer, the group's general counsel, who was elected chairman to succeed Marcel Ospel, albeit with a revolt by about 14 per cent of the shareholders.
Mr Kurer said UBS would resist calls to break up its "integrated" model of investment banking, private banking and asset management, but he noted pointedly that wealth management was "ultimately our core franchise".
Shareholders, as expected, approved a 15 billion Swiss franc rights issue, the bank's second recapitalisation in two months.
