瑞银拟大规模削减投行业务

UBS’s radical downsizing of its investment bank will take three years and trigger large job losses in London, Zurich and its US trading hub in Stamford, according to people close to the situation.

知情人士称，瑞银(UBS)大规模削减投行业务的计划将需要三年时间完成，这将导致该行位于伦敦和苏黎世的投行部门、以及位于斯坦福的美国交易中心大规模裁员。

Almost exactly a year after becoming permanent chief executive, Sergio Ermotti is ready to execute what is going to be the most drastic restructuring of any investment bank.

塞尔吉奥·埃尔默蒂(Sergio Ermotti)差不多在一年前就任瑞银永久首席执行官，他即将实施的重组计划对于任何投行来说都是极为激进的。

The plan, due to be unveiled tomorrow, to hive off most of its fixed income trading into a non-core unit will prompt the loss of almost a sixth of the bank’s more than 63,000 workforce.

瑞银将于明日宣布这项将大部分固定收益业务剥离到一个非核心部门的计划。它将导致该行近六分之一的员工失业。瑞银目前员工总数超过6.3万名。

While a drastic step, it is in tune with a strategy devised by the 52-year-old chief last year to pare back UBS’s often-troubled investment bank and to focus on its highly-prized global wealth management and domestic retail unit.

此举虽然激进，但它与现年52岁的埃尔默蒂去年制定的战略相符。埃尔默蒂计划削减瑞银麻烦不断的投行业务，将重点放在其倍受推崇的全球财富管理和国内零售银行业务。

The restructuring programme, called “Accelerate, foresees the closure of large parts of fixed income trading operations, which contributed almost two-thirds to UBS investment bank’s operating profit in the second quarter.

这个被称为“加速的重组计划预计将关闭大部分固定收益业务。瑞银投行部门第二季度近三分之二的营业利润来自固定收益业务。

The programme will instead focus the investment bank on easier to understand and capital-light equities and foreign exchange trading as well as advisory functions.

该计划将让瑞银的投行业务集中在更简单易懂、资本占用少的股票和外汇交易以及咨询业务。

The move is set to please investors and regulators alike given that UBS’s trading operations have been the source of many mishaps in the past few years.

鉴于瑞银的交易业务过去几年导致了许多问题，此举将受到投资者和监管机构的欢迎。

The trading unit brought the bank close to collapse in 2010 with hefty losses and last year an alleged rogue trader caused another $2.3bn loss. The bank’s rates trading activities have also embroiled it in the Libor scandal.

瑞银交易部门曾在2010年发生重大亏损，差点导致该行破产。去年，一个流氓交易员又导致瑞银出现23亿美元的亏损。瑞银的利率交易活动还卷入了伦敦银行间同业拆借利率(Libor)丑闻。

It has also failed to earn the bank’s cost of capital for years. “UBS’s subscale fixed income unit has struggled to make more than single-digit returns on [allocated] equity, well below the 25 per cent the core asset and wealth management arms are making, said Huw van Steenis, analyst at Morgan Stanley.

多年来，瑞银交易部门的收益也没能弥补资本成本。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)分析师休·范斯蒂尼斯(Huw van Steenis)表示：“瑞银固定收益部门一直难以实现个位数以上的（已配置）股本回报率，远低于其核心资产和财富管理部门目前25%的回报率。

Analysts credit Mr Ermotti with starting the transformation of the investment bank, leading the wealth management business to renewed growth and strengthening UBS’s capital position to make it one of the best-capitalised banks in the world.

分析师认为，埃尔默蒂启动了瑞银投行部门的转变，恢复了财富管理业务的增长，增强了资本状况，从而使该行成为全球资本最充足的银行之一。

But the Swiss-born chief executive, who came to the helm last year in the wake of the trading scandal, had to fight many internal battles to push through what was his preferred choice among a number of restructuring options.

但这位出生于瑞士、在去年瑞银爆发交易丑闻后走马上任的首席执行官不得不解决许多内部困难，才能彻底推行他从诸多重组方案中精心挑选的方案。