UBS plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs

Switzerland's biggest bank by assets will bringlarge parts of its fixed income trading business into a non-core unit leaving a reduced investment bank with equities trading, foreign exchange and advisory roles.
The non-core operation will be headed by Carsten Kengeter, current co-head of the investment bank, and will be wound down over time, two people close to the situation said.
The split will lead to another reduction in risk-weighted assets of up to SFr100bn ($107bn) and will trigger the loss of thousands of jobs in the group's back office over the next few years.
The job cuts will amountto almost a sixth of the bank's workforce of 63,500 at the end of June. They will not happen all at once and the precise number is still unclear as the exact impact on back-office functions has not yet been determined.
It comes on top of another -- still ongoing -- program announced last year to cut 3,500 jobs.
The move highlights how banks around the world are trying to adapt to a radically changed regulatory andmarket environment thathas left them with lower returns and much higher capital needs for certain business areas and national subsidiaries.
The strategy, hammered out in several executive board meetings in New York this week and set tobe announced next Tuesday, will trigger a large reduction of complexity and costs in the bank's support functions such as its information technology department.
"There were several options on the table but UBS has decided on the most radical one," one person familiar with the plan said.
The plan was devised bySergio Ermotti, who came in a chief executivelast year in the wake of an alleged rogue trading scandal that left UBS with a $2.3bn loss in the investment bank

More misery in Spain as uneployment Exceeds 25%,

Though hardly a surprise, Friday's report that Spain's unemploymentrate had surpassed 25 percent was bad news for agovernment that recently trumpeted a streamlining ofits labor market rules. The ranks of the unemployed swelled to 5.78 million people at the end of the third quarter, compared with 5.69 milliona quarter earlier and 2.6 million four years ago, when Spain's property bubble burst, the report said. The jobs data signaled a deepening recession and raised the likelihood that Spain would again miss budget targets agreed to with other euro zone countries. There was, however, one perversely positive elementto the report: the labor picture is so bleak that it could help Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy make the case that Germany and other lenders cannot risk imposing further austerity measures on Spain's economy in return for providing more European rescue fundingThe dire jobs report"gives Rajoy more leverage in his European negotiations and is good ammunition to ask for more time to adapt," said Federico Steinberg, an economist at the Elcano Royal Institute, a research organization in Madrid. Mr. Rajoy, however, is alsofighting the crisis at home.Unions have called a general strike for Nov. 14, and elections in Catalonia on Nov. 25 could accelerate that region's drive toward independence. Luis Garicano, a professor at the London School of Economics, said the government's cost of paying unemployment benefits, now almost 4 percent of gross domestic product, was unsustainable. After 20 consecutive quarters of job destruction, he said,"people see very little light at the end of the tunnel, and Spaniards are losing hope."

Fiscal year

Fiscal year – A corporation's accounting year. Due to the nature of their particular business, some companies donot use the calendar year fortheir bookkeeping. A typical example is the department store that finds December 31too early a date to close its books after the Christmas rush. For that reason many stores wind up their accounting year January 31. Their fiscal year, therefore, runs from February 1 of one year through January 31 of the next. The fiscal year of other companies may run from July 1 through the following June 30. Most companies, though, operate on a calendar year basis.

Ex-rights

Ex-rights – Without the rights. Corporations raising additional money may do so by offering their stockholders the right to subscribe to new or additional stock, usually at a discount from the prevailing market price. The buyer of a stock selling ex-rights is not entitled to the rights.

Flat income bond (FiB)

Flat income bond – This termmeans that the price at whicha bond is traded includes consideration for all unpaid accruals of interest. Bonds that are in default of interest or principal are traded flat. Income bonds that pay interest only to the extent earned are usually traded flat. All other bonds are usually dealt in "and interest," which means that the buyer pays to the seller the market price plus interestaccrued since the last payment date.

Ex-dividend

Ex-dividend – A synonym for "without dividend." The buyer of a stock selling ex-dividend does not receive the recently declared dividend. When stocks go ex-dividend, the stock tables include the symbol "x" following the name.

Floor broker

Floor broker – A member of the stock exchange who executes orders on the floor of the Exchange to buy or sell any listed securities.

Equity

Equity – The ownership interest of common and preferred stockholders in a company. Also refers to excess of value of securities over the debit balance in a margin account

Formula investing

Formula investing – An investment technique. One formula calls for the shifting of funds from common shares to preferred shares or bonds as a selected market indicator rises above a certainpredetermined point - and the return of funds to common share investments as the market average declines

Equipment trust certificate (ETC)

Equipment trust certificate – A type of security, generally issued by a railroad, to pay for new equipment. Title to the equipment, such as a locomotive, is held by a trustee until the notes are paid off. An equipment trust certificate is usually secured by a first claim on the equipment