UBS

  • 25 Oct 2012 at 3:23 PM

UBS’s Investment Banking Head May Have To Slash His Own Expenses “Like A Jewish Shopkeeper”

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As those of you keeping up with the many trials and travails of UBS know, the last couple years have been fairly brutal for investment banking chief Carsten Kengeter. Pre-tax IBD profit was down 55 percent YoY through June, employees are constantly on his ass about getting paid, the comments he made in attempt to “rally the troops” re: “slashing expenses like a Jewish shopkeeper” were totally taken the wrong way, some guy perpetrated a $2 billion fraud (which was partially to blame for CK getting passed over for the promotion he was gunning for), and to top it all off, the higher-ups accepted his offer to forgo a bonus for 2011, which he would never have put out there if he thought they’d actually go for it. And now, as a thanks for all his hard work, management is publicly mulling the idea of lightening his load and paycheck, which could not come at a worse time considering he just put a down payment on a signed first-edition copy of Mein Kampf.* Read more »

  • 25 Oct 2012 at 1:48 PM

Layoffs Watch ’12: UBS

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Cuts are said to have gone down at the Swiss bank yesterday, with an HR SEAL Team 6 “flown in from NYC” to take out the West Coast employees. Read more »

  • 23 Oct 2012 at 3:39 PM

Layoffs/Hiring Watch ’12: UBS

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The Swiss bank is said to be planning a big round of cuts in the investment bank with the aim of saving a bunch of money, which it will then spend on luring in “more promising talent.” Read more »

  • 25 Sep 2012 at 4:46 PM

Kweku Adoboli’s Weather Tracker Didn’t Account For Cloudy With A Chance Of Severe Losses

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John Hughes, the former senior trader on the ETF desk, said Adoboli told him in January last year about an internal account he called his umbrella. Prosecutors allege Adoboli created the account to pool profit from trades he hadn’t booked to use to cover up future losses. Hughes testified that he thought the umbrella referred to a profit pool that hadn’t been booked. “You live in blue sky scenarios,” Hughes wrote in an instant-message exchange with Adoboli in January 2011. “It often rains,” Adoboli responded. “I learned that last year. So I built an umbrella.” [BusinessWeek, Related: "I take responsibility for my actions and the shit storm that will now ensue."]

  • 24 Sep 2012 at 2:25 PM

John DiBiacco Will Never Forget The Day He Told Kweku Adoboli To Cut Risk To Zero, Hours Of Silent Treatment He Received Afterward

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In Southwark Crown Court in London, the boyish-looking Mr. DiBacco was cross-examined for more than three hours by Mr. Adoboli’s lawyer, Paul Garlick, whose questions appeared to be aimed at showing the Swiss bank was fully aware of his client’s activities and that his trading was in line with the risk-taking culture in London. Mr. DiBacco was the former global head of synthetic equity trading at UBS and Mr. Adoboli’s boss before he was terminated in January 2012 for failure to supervise. Mr. DiBacco said he disagreed with UBS’s assessment of his performance. Earlier on Friday, a prosecutor, Sasha Wass, focused on the risk limits Mr. DiBacco placed on the London trading desk when he took it over in April 2011. Mr. DiBacco, dressed in a blue pin-striped suit, pale blue shirt and red silk tie, testified that in late July 2011 he telephoned Mr. Adoboli while on vacation in Colorado and ordered him to cut the risk in his trading book. Mr. DiBacco said he remembered the conversation with the trader “very clearly’’ because he was speaking on the telephone in front of his girlfriend who was “not particularly pleased’’ that he was talking about markets and risk while on vacation. “Shut everything down,’’ Mr. DiBacco said he told Mr. Adoboli. “I want no risk.’’ [Dealbook]

  • 20 Sep 2012 at 2:05 PM

UBS Encouraged Kweku Adoboli To Develop Other Interests Outside Rogue Trading, Which It Condoned, Says Lawyer/Old Boss

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Adoboli lawyer Charles Sherrard said the bank became “more aggressive in terms of its desire to make profits” in 2011, while cross-examining one of Adoboli’s former bosses at a fraud trial in London today. “The culture, practice at the bank you were working for, didn’t matter as long as you were making money,” Sherrard said to Ron Greenidge, who oversaw UBS’s exchange-traded-funds desk until April of last year…Greenidge, who worked at UBS for 19 years, said today he was dismissed for gross misconduct because of Adoboli’s trades. He said he felt the bank was making him a scapegoat…Sherrard read out Adoboli’s performance reviews from 2009 written by Greenidge, which said the trader needed a better balance between work and other activities. Greenidge said Adoboli was a “great ambassador for the ETF product” and had outstanding performance that year…The culture at UBS changed with the arrival from Deutsche Bank of Yassine Bouhara in 2010 as the co-head of equities, Sherrard said. Bouhara is no longer at the bank. “The very nature of the bank became more aggressive in terms of its desire to make profit,” Sherrard said to Greenidge. “The mantra was coming from above was revenue, revenue, revenue.” [Bloomberg]

  • 18 Sep 2012 at 6:38 PM

Layoffs Watch ’12: UBS

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UBS is said to be embarking on a “fresh round of cuts” in the investment bank, starting with employees big and small in Europe.  Read more »

  • 18 Sep 2012 at 12:55 PM

A Lot Of People Saddle Their Employer With Billions In Losses Over A Few Thousand In Personal Credit Card Debt

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UBS, the Swiss bank, was aware of problems with Kweku Adoboli’s trading five weeks before he was arrested, a court was told on Tuesday. The bank’s back office questioned €3.6bn (£2.9bn) of incorrectly booked trades as early as August 4, Southwark Crown Court heard in the trial of the former trader accused of losing his bank $2.3bn in rogue trades. The trades, normally booked on the same day, remained unregistered weeks after Mr Adoboli made them. Yesterday, the court heard how he himself had lost £123,000 spread-betting through a personal account with IG index. His trading with IG Index prompted two official warnings from his bank bosses after he failed to disclose the account and then failed to disclose individual trades. The court heard on Monday how Mr Adoboli owed thousands of pounds on current accounts and credit cards despite earning £360,000 and was overdrawn and relying on pay-day loan companies when he was arrested. Despite seeing £233,000 pass through his NatWest Bank account in the 12 months prior to his arrest Mr Adoboli’s account was overdrawn by £3,594 when he was arrested on September 15 last year, the court was told. Across his four banks accounts and two credit cards the 32-year-old trader owed £4,181. His primary current account showed payments to eight pay-day loan companies including Wageday Advance, Wonga.com, Payday UK and Pounds to Pocket. [Telegraph]

  • 14 Sep 2012 at 4:13 PM

Reader Poll: What Is The Appropriate Way To Close A Letter Informing Your Employer You’ve Lost It A Couple Billion Dollars?

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“Regards”? “Best wishes”? “Very yours truly”? “Sincerely”? “All the best”? “Love”? ”Again, really sorry”? ”Well I guess I’ll take off now”? “It’s been a pleasure working with you”? “TTYL”? “Keep in touch”? Kweku Adoboli, UBS’s alleged rogue trader, who does sound genuinely sorry for the “shit storm” he brought on the bank, went with “thanks.” Read more »

  • 14 Sep 2012 at 1:33 PM

‘Counterparty’ is such a bandied about term nowadays. So I just, you know, I kinda just don’t use ‘em.

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According to [Crown Prosecution Service's Sasha] Wass, William Steward, an accountant in the UBS back office, “must have felt that he had been hit by a steam roller” after he received an email from Adoboli on Sept. 14 last year revealing his actions. She said Steward had three conversations that morning with Mr. Adoboli about the trades, and wanted to know who the counterparties were. In the email, Mr. Adoboli wrote: “First of all, the ETF trades that you see on the ledger are not trades that I have done with a counterparty as I have previously described…I used the bookings as a way to suppress the PnL losses that I have accrued through off book trades that I made”. [WSJ]

  • 13 Sep 2012 at 3:50 PM

Layoffs Watch ’12: UBS?

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Cuts are said to be coming in the near-ish future. Read more »