Swiss Bank UBS to axe 2,000 jobs

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The group, which employs around 7,000 of its existing 19,000 investment bank staff in London, declined to say how many cuts would hit the UK.

It takes the number of job losses at UBS' investment banking arm to 6,000 during the past year. The Swiss giant has been one of the worst hit by investments in "toxic" mortgage-backed assets, suffering investment write-offs of more than 42 billion US dollars (£23.7 billion) since the start of last year.

UBS said it would be reducing its fixed income and currency dealing operations, as well as "substantially" downsizing its real estate securitisation business as part of the changes.

Jerker Johansson, chairman and chief executive of UBS investment bank, said: "The ongoing crisis in the financial markets and dramatically changed industry dynamics require us to recalibrate our business."

The bank's job cuts are the latest to hit the City, and follow several hundred redundancies from collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers this week.

UBS said job losses would be across the board at its investment bank, but targeted to businesses "being exited or downsized in order to protect and sustain our core client franchises".

A spokesman for the bank said: "We will communicate as quickly as possible to the people being affected. The plan is that everybody will know sooner rather than later."

Mr Johansson added: "While the revenue outlook is uncertain, these measures will allow us to focus on our strengths, reduce the cost base to a more sustainable level and position our core businesses for growth once fundamentals improve."

UBS said job losses would be across the board at its investment bank, but targeted to businesses "being exited or downsized in order to protect and sustain our core client franchises".