UBS sack risk officer after rogue trades

The UBS rogue trading scandal has claimed the scalp of chief risk officer Maureen Miskovic, who has been forced to step down less than a year after taking the post.

The bank was rocked by a series of unauthorised trades that came to light in September, costing some SFr2 billion. Chief executive Oswald Grübel resigned the same month as a result of the debacle.

In October, the two co-heads of UBS’s Global Equities Division also handed in their notice.

Observers had predicted that more heads would roll at the bank with Miskovic being one of the more obvious targets.

The Briton had only joined UBS at the start of this year from United States-based financial services group State Street. She had previously been head of risk at Lehman Brothers, but had left the bank six years prior to its collapse.

Philip Lofts, who had held the position of chief risk officer at UBS just prior to Miskovic, will again assume the role for the group.

Lofts had been chief executive of UBS Group Americas since the beginning of this year and his re-appointment has led to a leadership reshuffle in the bank’s US operations. Robert McCann will now fill his post while retaining his current function as CEO of Wealth Management Americas.

The 31-year-old London based trader, Kweku Adoboli, whose alleged rogue deals sparked off the storm, was last week again remanded into custody in London while awaiting trial.