Troubled Swiss bank UBS made another major management reshuffle yesterday, saying its chairman Peter Kurer would step down and former Swiss finance minister Kaspar Villiger was nominated to succeed him.
The latest change sees another member of the old guard at Switzerland’s biggest bank being replaced by an outsider, barely a week after its chief executive Marcel Rohner resigned and was replaced by former Credit Suisse chief executive Oswald Gruebel.
It gave a boost to the share price, which opened up 3.34 percent at 10.22 Swiss francs.
UBS has been struggling to recover after losing billions in the US subprime home loan crisis and the ensuing financial meltdown. It is also caught up in a legal dispute with the US over a tax evasion probe.
UBS vice-chairman Sergio Marchionne said the “extent and speed of deterioration of market conditions” could not have been forecast, and credited Kurer for helping to put UBS “back on track.”
Kurer said most of the tasks he set out to achieve, including the reduction of risks and re-examination of the bank’s strategy, have been “accomplished in a short period of time.”
“I now think it is time to complete this transition and leave the office at the end of my one-year term,” he said in a statement.
Amid the bank’s legal troubles in the US over allegations it helped wealthy Americans evade taxes, Kurer has come under pressure in recent months due to his previous position at the bank as chief legal officer.
UBS has now nominated 68-year-old Villiger, who was Switzerland’s finance minister between 1995 and 2003, to take over.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS