UBS posted a $11 billion first quarter loss after taking a whopping $19 billion in mortgage-related losses. The company will cut 5,500 jobs in a restructuring effort to save the banking giant. Ironically, UBS was praised as being conservative as the credit crunch got underway with it’s first $3 billion write down at the end of last year. Now the bank stands as the poster-child for mortgage-related beatings with write downs totaling $37 billion, and is downsizing and pulling out of several higher-risk banking enterprises in an attempt to save itself as a going concern.
From Market Watch on the UBS mortgage losses:
the Swiss investment-banking giant, swung to a first-quarter net loss of 11.54 billion Swiss francs ($11 billion) after posting some $19 billion of losses tied to U.S. mortgages and related securities as well as other structured products.
On the 5,500 job cuts at UBS by 2009:
UBS said Tuesday it plans to cut 5,500 jobs by the middle of next year, an effort meant to restructure the Swiss giant’s troubled investment bank. The Zurich-based bank will axe the jobs after massive write-downs on dud mortgage securities, totaling over $37 billion thus far.
It’s no wonder the bank is under investigation for improperly valuing its assets. $3 billion was touted as a purging of the system when UBS first came forward. Now with losses at 10x it looks more like fraud.
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