Swiss bank cuts 200 staff

UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank by assets, is firing almost 200 employees in its wealth management Americas division, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

The cuts include about 25 managing directors and affect employees in areas such as product development, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the firings are not public.

The cuts represent about 1.2 per cent of the unit's 16,925 employees as of December 31.

Robert J. McCann, the former Merrill Lynch executive who joined Zurich-based UBS last year, reorganised the division last month into two regions from three.

The unit aims for annual pre-tax profit of more than 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion) in the next three to five years compared with a 32 million-franc profit in 2009.

The division has about 7000 financial advisers and is responsible for 690 billion francs in assets under management.

McCann in November hired former Merrill colleagues Bob Mulholland, Brian Hull, John Brown and Paula Polito to help run the unit as he seeks to stem client defections.

- BLOOMBERG