Grübel faces UBS board in Singapore

UBS Chief Executive Oswald Grübel has met the bank’s board of directors for the first time since it reported a $2.3 billion (SFr2.09 billion) loss by a rogue trader.

Grübel refused to comment on the meeting in Singapore on Friday.

The loss by a London-based UBS investment bank trader has virtually wiped out savings the bank made through extensive job cuts, and hardened attitudes in Switzerland towards risky banking ventures.

During the UBS board meeting, top executives at the Swiss bank were expected to consider demands from investors to downsize or fence off risky trading activities and protect its core business of managing private investors’ wealth.

Earlier this week, UBS’s largest shareholder, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, said in a rare public rebuke that it was concerned about lapses at UBS and called on the bank to restore confidence.

UBS’s board meeting, one of four regular meetings per year, coincides with the Singapore Formula One motor racing Grand Prix, of which UBS is a major sponsor. 

The meeting was scheduled to end on Friday but was extended, a UBS spokesperson said.

A trader has been charged with fraud and false accounting for the billion dollar loss. He has been detained until next month.