UBS job cuts in Switzerland to be based on ‘meritocracy’
The 3,000 job cuts UBS plans to make in Switzerland as it integrates Credit Suisse will be partly based on meritocracy, according to UBS Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti.
In an interview in Le Matin Dimanche on Sunday, Ermotti said: “We are going to try our best on the principle of meritocracy, and use retirements, early retirements and natural departures. It’s not 3,000 people at Credit Suisse who made mistakes, probably much fewer.”
The UBS CEO, who was named “Swiss of the year” by Le Matin Dimanche, says the job-cutting exercise is delicate: “The most difficult part of this work will consist of dismissing people who are in no way responsible for what happened.”
UBS wants to have completed the takeover and integration of Credit Suisse by the end of 2026. In this context, UBS is targeting total cost reductions of around $10 billion (CHF8.8 billion).
Ermotti tries to put criticism of the takeover and job losses into perspective. He said: “The vast majority of affected jobs would have been lost even if UBS had not taken control because Credit Suisse was losing billions and planned to continue losing billions. They would therefore have had to make a drastic cost reduction which would have cost a lot of jobs. And if Credit Suisse had been bought by a foreign bank, it would probably have lost even more.
Scenarios other than UBS taking over Credit Suisse would have been possible, but it should have been done earlier, Ermotti says. “Unfortunately, we had allowed the situation at Credit Suisse to deteriorate for too long,” he declared, until it became “uncontrollable”.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Multinational companies
Azeri fossil-fuel cash cow brings controversy to Switzerland
Is artificial intelligence an advantage or a disadvantage for workers?
What is your experience with AI at work? Have you already used it? Has it helped you work better? Or has it caused you more stress, more work or caused you to lose your job? Tell us about your experiences!
Swiss price watchdog slams excessive prices for generic medicines
This content was published on
The cheapest generic medicines available in Switzerland are more than twice as expensive as in other countries, according to a study by the Swiss price watchdog.
Nature should not figure in net zero calculations: academic study
This content was published on
The natural removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by forests or oceans should not be included in the net-zero balance of climate protection measures, argue researchers.
This content was published on
None of the 15 major Swiss retail banks is meeting international climate and biodiversity targets, according to a ranking by WWF Switzerland.
This content was published on
Nestlé's new CEO Laurent Freixe, has presented plans for the future of the world's largest food company, after his first few weeks in office.
Swiss foreign minister calls on Moscow to end Ukraine war
This content was published on
It's high time Moscow ended its war against Ukraine, Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis tells the UN Security Council.
This content was published on
The only alternative to the UN Palestinian agency’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
Study reveals food culture differences between Switzerland and neighbours
This content was published on
Three-quarters of Swiss people consider eating to be a pleasurable, social activity, a new survey reveals. Healthy eating, however, plays a much less important role, it found.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.