SINGAPORE/ZURICH (Reuters) - The board of UBS met on Friday amid the glamour of Singapore's Grand Prix event to decide the future of its scandal-hit investment bank and CEO Oswald Gruebel, on whose watch it lost $ 2.3 billion in alleged rogue trading.
Top executives at the Swiss bank, which has staggered from crisis to crisis over the past three years, are under pressure to downsize or fence off risky trading activities and protect its core business of managing private investors' wealth.
After the meeting a casually-dressed Gruebel declined to comment on his future. Wearing a black polo shirt and khaki trousers as he crossed the lobby of Singapore's Ritz-Carlton hotel -- where the bank's top brass are staying -- Gruebel shook his head when asked by a reporter whether he could say anything.
Clients pulled nearly 400 billion Swiss francs ($ 442 billion) -- almost 20 percent of total client assets -- from UBS during the financial crisis as the bank was battered by subprime losses, a prolonged dispute with the U.S. tax authorities and the biggest annual corporate loss in Swiss history.
The bank's inflows have since turned positive but other private banks are now circling again to nab clients worried about reputational risk in the wake of the rogue trader affair.
The $ 2.3 billion allegedly racked up by UBS trader Kweku Adoboli in unauthorized trades compares to the 4.9 billion euros
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