UBS to Cut 15% of Its Workforce

October 30, 2012 by Trey Thoelcke

UBS A.G. (NYSE: UBS) has made it official. It will cut 10,000 jobs, primarily in its fixed-income operations. The financial firm said the move will save it $3.6 billion over the next three years. The cost of that is the elimination of 15% of it employee base. “This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people,” CEO Sergio P. Ermotti said in a statement.

The financial industry almost certainly is not done with the restructuring that has gone on for more than a year now as some portions of the industry have lost business. And some banks already have said they will cut more staff. At the head of the list is Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), which plans to fire 30,000 people. Investors have said that a change at the top of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) will start a reevaluation of all the bank’s divisions and staff levels. Usually that means a new CEO wants to put a mark on his company. In banking, that almost certainly signals layoffs.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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