UBS Chairman Ousted After $12b Quarterly Loss

Last July, UBS CEO Peter Wuffli was ousted after a subprime hedge fund failure at the bank. Today, UBS chairman Marcel Ospel is also out following a $12 billion loss. The losses come from a fresh $19 billion writedown on debt securities, bringing the total to about $38 billion since 3Q2007.

For some perspective on the severity of UBS’ $12 billion quarterly loss, consider that UBS bought brokerage giant Paine Webber in 2000 for $16 billion. The Swiss Bank bought Paine Webber to expand their presence in the U.S. wealth management market as a long-term bank strategy. Their first quarter loss in 2008 alone was 75% of the total Paine Webber acquisition cost. In other credit crunch news today, Deutsche Bank also announced write-downs of $4 billion. These are the latest in a credit crisis timeline that has claimed top executives, top companies, and led to $230 billion in total write-downs to date.