UBS aims to cut its ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a “bad bank” deal and to return to health in a year, says Oswald Grübel, chief executive, who has likened its battering in the financial crisis to a “15-round boxing match”.
UBS aims to cut its ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a “bad bank” deal and to return to health in a year, says Oswald Grübel, chief executive, who has likened its battering in the financial crisis to a “15-round boxing match”.
The Swiss bank has locked horns with regulators at Finma, Switzerland’s financial watchdog, over its desire to leave the bad bank scheme, under which UBS pays for protection against big losses on toxic assets.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Grübel said of the scheme: “It is very expensive. We have to make an offer to buy back those assets.”
The bad bank facility incurs a heavycharge. Given the recent recovery in credit markets, UBS is confident it could take the assets back on its balance sheet, but concedes it may not be feasible to enact its plan before the second half of 2010.
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