UBS chief says other banks might need to downsize

[October 31, 2012]  GENEVA (AP) -- A day after UBS AG announced it was cutting up to 10,000 jobs by 2015, the Swiss banking giant's chairman Axel Weber warned that many of its global rivals may have to follow suit.

The Zurich-based bank is seeking to put its scandals and losses behind it with a plan to downsize its investment banking and drop risky trading activities.

Its third-quarter net loss of 2.17 billion Swiss francs ($2.31 billion) was largely due to its investment banking unit, where new rules for increasing capital reserves reduce the amount of money for investing.

Weber was quoted as telling Germany daily Handelsblatt for Wednesday's edition he suspects "many banks have not yet really understood what the consequences of the new capital rules for business will be when they come into full effect in 2019."

[Associated Press]

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