As you may have heard, over the weekend, UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel informed the board that as much fun as this job’s been, he’d like to quit while still ahead. Sergio Ermotti, head of European business, has been named interim CEO and while a candidate for the gig before the whole Kweku Adoboli incident, the bank isn’t set on him running the place for the long term (“He takes clients out, he’s got a nice tan, but he doesn’t have the charisma to run a place like UBS and to cope with the risk,” one analyst said in July). So, a search is underway, both internally and externally, neither scenario thrilling anyone (an outsider CEO would be tough since next year they’ll be getting an outsider CEO in Axel Weber, while an insider would be someone who was there when shit went down), and a total of one name being proposed in the last 3 days. Continue reading »
Oswald Gruebel
Forever. Continue reading »
Half Of UBS Investment Bank Is Supporting Asset Management, Other Half Might Want Consider Their Options Elsewhere
By Matt Levine
Earlier this morning, UBS announced that income fell to 1.02 billion Swiss francs ($1.27 billion) from 2.01 billion francs last year, leaving the door open for analysts to air their grievances about the investment bank and press CEO Oswald Grübel on UBS’s earnings call about the underperforming investment bank and how it will fit with the relatively strong wealth management division in the future.
JPMorgan’s Kian Abouhossein, for example, thinks that UBS’s fixed income business sucks and refused to mince words about it:
If I look over the last 4 quarters, you’re either the worst performer [in FICC] in the industry globally of the top players, or you’re the second worst. Mr. Grübel, when do you say enough is enough of underperformance, and when do you take more drastic action?
UBS Thinks Stamford Is To Blame For Its Problems, Considering Hightailing It Out Of Connecticut
By Bess Levin
As you may have noticed, UBS has been going through some what of a rough patch. Profits are not what they once were, the IRS won’t let them help people evade taxes anymore and management has had a very difficult time convincing people not to quit, with a decent amount of senior departures occurring in the last several months. The deflections for the most part have to do with people wanting to get paid (there hasn’t been a lot of that in a while at UBS, though some staff recently received raises and higher-ups have pinky-sworn future pay will be competitive with other firms), but the bank is thinking the problem lies less with compensation and more with geography. Specifically, Stamford, CT, where the largest trading floor in the world is located. As we have reported, the equities team will be moving to New York later this summer and after casually mulling over the idea, management is now seriously considering moving the whole shebang, which they believe will solve all problems. Continue reading »
UBS Chairman Would Like A Little Credit For All The Investment Bank’s Legitimate Achievements
By Bess LevinAs you may have heard, UBS has been going through a bit of a rough patch. Despite posting an annual profit (of 7.2 billion Swiss francs) for the first time since 2006, things just haven’t been the same since the crisis, and some have suggested it never will be, claiming that the bank “doesn’t have a chance” getting back to pre-crisis levels because “too much damage has been done.” Not helping things is the fact that there’s been very high turnover in the last couple months, which may have something to do with the fact that people would like to get paid. What you may not have heard is that the investment bank? Is kicking ass, according to Chairman Oswald Gruebel who is kind of confused as to why the media has chosen to ignore the division’s “steady progress” but wants employees to know he, for one, has not. Continue reading »
In assessing his performance this year, Oswald Gruebel said he added no value. Continue reading »
Prior to the financial crisis, UBS was a highly profitable, if not tax-evading, bank. It was self-assured and knew its self-worth. The last few years, however, have taken a serious toll on the firm’s confidence and you know what’s not helping at all? Places like London fucking with UBS’s head re: how the government feels about it. In private, when they’re alone, UK officials are all, “We love you, you’re the one for us” and then in public it’s all, “Banks are evil! Down with banks! Sorry, whose number is this?” UBS Chief executive Oswald Grubel tried to play it cool for a while, acting like he didn’t care, but he’s officially hit his breaking point.
Oswald Grübel, the veteran banker who has led the Swiss bank back from the brink of collapse over the past two years, said: “The government is so quiet about [the City]. Only behind closed doors do they pay lip service to wanting to keep the City. If it is abandoned by the government one day, God help you.”
Enough is enough! Do you want UBS et al in your life or not? Grubel wants a commitment now. Not tomorrow, not in five years, now, today. Continue reading »
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