UBS update - the Chairman speaks
February 29th, 2008
At Swiss bank UBS's Extraordinary General Meeting on Wednesday, only about 44% of the shareholders voted in favor of a request for a special derivatives/subprime related audit.
Notably, the bank's Chairman Marcel Ospel (pictured above) in his speech to the shareholders at the meeting seemed to blame the shareholders themselves for UBS's subprime fiasco. He chided the shareholders that UBS used to be very careful but had to take on these subprime risks due to shareholder pressures. He seemed to reluctantly concede that the "spotlight" is now on the Board of Directors and himself. Excerpt:
"Until very recently we had the reputation of being a cautious, even risk-averse bank. We took the management of our credit, market and operational risks extremely seriously. Over the years UBS often turned down business that we thought was too risky. <snip> And at times we were so cautious that we were occasionally criticized by you for it. This is why we looked for and found ways of being more active in dynamic market segments without abandoning our risk policies." You can read his entire speech here →