Julius Baer plays down trading incident as 'minor'
Julius Baer Friday played down an anonymous letter sent to Switzerland's banking regulator alerting the body to alleged irregularities in valuing fixed income trading positions.
"This is a minor incident and financially completely irrelevant," Julius Baer executive Hans de Gier said of the letter, seen by Dow Jones Newswires, at a press conference in Zurich.
The letter, purportedly sent by several Julius Baer private banking executives, but not signed or otherwise identified, says Julius Baer parked proprietary trading positions on its own book to avoid recording losses.
A spokesman for the Swiss banking regulator said Julius Baer had taken steps to remedy the matter, without elaborating.
De Gier declined to answer further questions about the letter, which was originally sent to the regulator December 23 but also forwarded to several London-based equity analysts Friday morning, shortly after the bank reported 2008 earnings.
The circulation of the letter sent Julius Baer shares into a free fall Friday, slicing $1.26bn (€984.5m) off the bank's market capitalisation in morning trading. At 12:25 GMT, the stock was Sfr6.67 lower, or down 20%, at Sfr26.54.
-- By Katharina Bart, Dow Jones Newswires; +41-43-4438043; katharina.bart@dowjones.com
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