UBS says "Forget this, we're bailing ourselves out."
Aperture Science
03-10-2008, 01:02
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/02/ubs-asset-update-markets-equity-cx_vr_1002markets08.html?feed=rss_popstories
I've always liked the Swiss. Nice people. A bit boring, but they have good chocolate.
Of course, this probably isn't so good for the US, since, from what I can determine, its strategy for bailing itself out is 'ditch everything and run' in the US.
But still, at least they aren't just sitting around whining.
Neu Leonstein
03-10-2008, 01:23
I think a difference to keep in mind is that UBS has retail banking and high net worth client operations that give it a very big balance sheet and lower gearing than the pure investment banks. It can take bigger losses than Lehman or Merril could and walk away afterwards.
Trans Fatty Acids
03-10-2008, 07:23
Not that Merrill is/was a pure investment bank either -- B of A bought it mainly for its brokerage arm, which was bigger than any other full-service firm's -- but you're right, UBS's global status did give it the wherewithal to sell out. Its U.S. operations have been in the toilet since early this year anyway, so I suspect they'd had this contingency plan on the table for some time.
Lacadaemon
03-10-2008, 08:03
Ha! They probably figure they aren't going to be in the friends of hank program, so they might as well ditch the crap now to piss everyone off.
Or maybe they are trying to score brownie points before the tax scam investigation by selling it to a friend of hank. I mean, diamonds in a toothpaste tube? Whoever heard of such a thing? It's like something from a bad James Bond knock off.
Top bank I don't think.
Lacadaemon
03-10-2008, 08:05
Meanwhile, I anxiously await the martial law that Skeletor promised would be necessary if such a thing ever happened.
Neu Leonstein
03-10-2008, 08:49
Top bank I don't think.
I think this piece of news, combined with this one (http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/UPDATE-1-UBS-cuts-2000-jobs-investment-banking-job-K3BAJ?OpenDocument), illustrates something that's been going on for a few months. Basically, the Swiss are taking their bank back.
For a while the investment banking, fancy Wall Street types had dictated what was going on and sold the idea to the board that the best way forward is to be involved in the most cutting edge stuff available. The board and the shareholders (a lot of Swiss pensioners and traditionalists there and on the board) sorta went along because they were bludgeoned with big words they didn't understand.
Then they lost all that money, and the CEO got the talking-to of a lifetime at the conference. I think the old men are taking back the bank and getting the hell out of anything stuff they don't understand. So more focus on good old Swiss banking: people's retirement money and diamonds in luggage. That sort of thing.
Moon Knight
03-10-2008, 10:45
*cough*tax-evasion*cough*
Of course I think you believe they are just leaving America all together. Not true, after the credit problem ends..which it will, they will start to strengthen their US stance.