UBS Posts 3Q Loss, Plans To Cut 10,000 Jobs

Swiss banking giant UBS AG said it will shed 10,000 jobs across the globe, primarily at its struggling investment bank and trading arms, to cut costs and save about 3.4-billion Swiss francs ($3.6 billion).

The company will enact the job cuts over the next three years and will partially focus on "removing "excess management layers.”

UBS currently employs a total workforce of about 64,000, about 6,600 in the United Kingdom.

The bank concurrently posted a third quarter net loss of 2.17 billion Swiss francs, versus a profit of 1.02 billion Swiss francs in the year-ago period.

One of the hardest hit financial institution during the global crisis, UBS lost some 39 billion Swiss Francs (largely from risky trades) and a required a $59.2 billion bailout from the government of Switzerland.

"This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people,“ said UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti in a statement.

"Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect."

UBS said it will now ficus on its private bank and a smaller investment bank,.

"We will no longer operate to any significant extent in businesses where risk-adjusted returns cannot meet their cost of capital," Ermotti and chairman Axel Weber wrote in a joint letter to shareholders.