UBS has become the latest bank to experience a rogue trading scandal as it revealed that a 31-year-old trader had been arrested in London on suspicion of blowing a $2bn hole in its books, exactly three years after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

“We understand that you have already had to contend with unfavourable, volatile markets for some time now,” Oswald Grübel, UBS’s chief executive, said in a memo to employees. “While the news is distressing, it will not change the fundamental strength of our firm.”

The news will also prompt doubts about Mr Grübel, the veteran Credit Suisse chief executive who came out of retirement in February 2009 to head UBS. Mr Grübel joined UBS with a simple message for the bank’s traders: “Don’t lose any money” – a dictum that was modified last year amid rebounding markets to “still don’t lose any money, but do more.”

As a “hands on” manager and a former trader himself with an acknowledged “nose” for the markets, Mr Grübel will find Thursday’s revelation particularly unwelcome, say peers.

http://swiss-lupe.blogspot.com/2009/02/oswald-grubel-manie-14-fotos.html
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/258a38d2-df6a-11e0-845a-00144feabdc0.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3bede780-df7f-11e0-845a-00144feabdc0.html