UBS IB head says need to adjust to challenging market: WirtschaftsWoche

[ZURICH] UBS will need to adjust its investment banking business to the tough market conditions this year in order to achieve its targets, the Swiss bank's investment banking head told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche.

"I'm a realist, the market environment is very challenging,"Andrea Orcel was quoted as saying in the summary of an interview published on Thursday. "We will adjust our business in order to achieve the results which we have planned."

He also said UBS saw growth opportunities in the United States, described by Orcel as the most important market, as other players retrench.

Swiss rival Credit Suisse, which expects first-quarter trading revenue to fall 40-45 per cent, is caught up in the fallout over its trading operations. Asked last week who would be held responsible for about US$1 billion in losses on its illiquid trading positions over the past two quarters, Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam said things had clearly gone wrong but the bank was now confident the problems had been identified.

REUTERS