City bears brunt of UBS cuts

Staff at UBS, the Swiss bank, will bear the brunt of job cuts resulting from the merger with SBC, it was confirmed yesterday.

The redundancies will be "particularly extensive" at UBS offices in London because of the need to "keep the successful Warburg Dillon Read [owned by SBC] teams in place", according to Mathis Cabiallavetta, UBS's chief executive.

The two Swiss banks are expected to cut 3,000 London jobs, about half their combined City workforce. Details of redundancies will be announced within weeks.

Speaking at an emergency general meeting of UBS shareholders, who yesterday formally approved the SBC deal, Mr Cabiallavetta said: "Warburg Dillon Read, the highly regarded and successful investment bank, gives SBC a competitive edge in London's financial market place. It would be a mistake not to leverage this franchise for maximum advantage.... This naturally implies a considerable shedding of jobs at UBS."

SBC shareholders will today vote on the deal in a separate extraordinary general meeting.