UBS job cuts in Switzerland to be based on ‘meritocracy’
The 3,000 job cuts UBS plans to make in Switzerland as it integrates Credit Suisse will be partly based on meritocracy, according to UBS Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti.
In an interview in Le Matin Dimanche on Sunday, Ermotti said: “We are going to try our best on the principle of meritocracy, and use retirements, early retirements and natural departures. It’s not 3,000 people at Credit Suisse who made mistakes, probably much fewer.”
The UBS CEO, who was named “Swiss of the year” by Le Matin Dimanche, says the job-cutting exercise is delicate: “The most difficult part of this work will consist of dismissing people who are in no way responsible for what happened.”
UBS wants to have completed the takeover and integration of Credit Suisse by the end of 2026. In this context, UBS is targeting total cost reductions of around $10 billion (CHF8.8 billion).
Ermotti tries to put criticism of the takeover and job losses into perspective. He said: “The vast majority of affected jobs would have been lost even if UBS had not taken control because Credit Suisse was losing billions and planned to continue losing billions. They would therefore have had to make a drastic cost reduction which would have cost a lot of jobs. And if Credit Suisse had been bought by a foreign bank, it would probably have lost even more.
Scenarios other than UBS taking over Credit Suisse would have been possible, but it should have been done earlier, Ermotti says. “Unfortunately, we had allowed the situation at Credit Suisse to deteriorate for too long,” he declared, until it became “uncontrollable”.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
This content was published on
Nemo brought the Eurovision Song Contest to Switzerland with a victory on Saturday evening in Malmö, Sweden. It is Switzerland's third victory in the history of the music contest.
Switzerland abstains from vote on Palestinian bid for full UN membership
This content was published on
On Friday, Switzerland abstained from the vote at the General Assembly on granting the Palestinians new rights at the United Nations (UN).
Protein in abdominal fat could help shape obesity treatment
This content was published on
The study analysed fat cells from different locations in the body, and found that those in the abdomen have unique properties.
North African asylum claims fall after rapid Swiss processing
This content was published on
The accelerated procedure, now out of its test phase, has resulted in a significant drop in applications from North African countries.
This content was published on
The artist's song "The Code" focuses on their journey as a nonbinary individual. It is one of the favourites to win this year's contest.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.