UBS made some major investment banking layoffs in London

Three weeks on from the news of redundancies in UBS's equities business, it seems it wasn't just equities staff who were let go at the Swiss bank. Sources say investment bankers went too, some of them very senior.

UBS isn't commenting on the redundancies, but the layoffs - which are said to have happened two weeks ago - are understood to include Chris Smith, head of UK equity capital markets, and Jean-Philippe Favre, head of power utilities and infrastructure in EMEA.

Favre joined UBS from Nomura in 2014. Smith is understood to have worked for the bank for around 20 years. Neither man responded to a request to comment on his whereabouts.

Others are understood to have been let go too. Sources said UBS cut around 25-30 directors and managing directors in EMEA.

UBS reported a 62% drop in third quarter profits this week and said it wants to cut costs by a net CHF90m (after also making investments in technology) in future, with most of those cuts coming from senior staff redundancies. The bank says it is aligning its efforts to clients, focusing resources on profitable growth and investing in digital transformation.

UBS's investment bankers had a challenging first nine months of the year in terms of revenues. At the end of the first half, research firm Tricumen said the Swiss bank's investment banking division appeared overstaffed given the revenues it had generated in 2019.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available. Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)