UBS to cut 3,500 jobs in bid to save 2B francs

[August 23, 2011]  GENEVA (AP) -- Swiss bank UBS AG said Tuesday it is cutting 3,500 jobs worldwide as part of an effort to save 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) annually by the end of 2013.

The Zurich-based bank said the cuts would be achieved "through redundancies as well as natural attrition." UBS had announced plans for a headcount reduction last month, without specifying exact numbers, after acknowledging that it wouldn't achieve the target it set for itself in 2009 for a pretax profit of 15 billion francs a year by 2014.

News of the cuts pushed shares in UBS up 2.7 percent to 10.82 francs (13.72) on the Zurich exchange.

Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank said employee payouts would likely depress an already weak third quarter for UBS, as the bank is hit by charges of 450 million francs.

UBS said almost 1,600 of the jobs lost will come from its investment bank unit. More than 1,200 will be in its wealth management and Swiss banking business, while about 700 will be split between its global asset management and its wealth management Americas units.

A spokesman for UBS, Yves Kaufmann, declined to say how the jobs cuts will be distributed geographically.

The bank currently has 65,000 employees in more than 50 countries around the world.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.