MSN MoneyCentral- UBS announced the departure of its investment bank head as it warned that it has written off billions of dollars on fixed-income assets, making the Swiss banking group the biggest casualty so far of the turmoil in the global financial markets.
The bank said it had written down its fixed-income portfolio by SFr4bn ($3.4bn), mainly because of losses on US subprime mortgage-related securities, triggering a third-quarter loss of SFr600m-SFr800m.
The losses far exceed those reported so far by other investment banks. UBS said Huw Jenkins, who runs the investment banking business, would step down and that Clive Standish, group chief financial officer, would retire.
Mr Jenkins is the second top banking executive to fall victim of the market turmoil. Last month Warren Spector was ousted as co-president of Bear Stearns following the collapse of two mortgage hedge funds the bank managed.
