Marcel Ospel, chairman of UBS, admitted Tuesday the Swiss bank’s risk and finance unit had failed to understand the subprime mortgage positions that led to its $10bn writedown, even though it was aware of the massive figures involved. In his first direct public encounter with shareholders since the subprime crisis this summer, Ospel used an investor day in London to make his strongest attack yet on the bank’s failure to live up to its reputation for risk management. But investors were unimpressed and even as Ospel repeated his intention to continue as chairman, some privately questioned why he did not hold himself more accountable for the bank’s failures. The investor day was eclipsed by Monday’s announcement of the write-offs and measures to strengthen UBS’s capital base, including the sale of SFr13bn (€8bn) of convertible bonds to strategic investors, savagely diluting existing shareholders.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 5:44 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with marcel ospel, ubs. Edit this entry.