Swiss poll blasts management at UBS
UBS' board of directors has been voted the worst in Switzerland in an annual poll, after having scored top marks for the past three consecutive years.
Nestlé, the Swiss food company, was voted to have the best board in Switzerland, according to a survey conducted by Swiss market research company Demoscope of 150 analysts, fund and wealth managers, financial chiefs and journalists.
A spokesman for Demoscope said UBS had been demoted to bottom of the pile "because of the events of the last few weeks and months." He added that the survey had taken place during April and May.
In the previous three surveys UBS was voted best board for three years in a row. UBS' management have been criticised for allowing the bank to become over-leveraged, leading to sub-prime related losses of $37bn at the investment banking unit, and a deeply discounted CHF16bn (€9.9bn) rights issue last week.
Yesterday the bank said it will need years to restore the brand image of its wealth management business which was also hurt by the losses, a top executive at UBS' private banking arm told Financial Times Deutschland.
"I don't believe it will take ten years but it will require years in any case and not just months," said Juerg Zeltner, who heads UBS' European wealth management business.
UBS shares are currently worth a third of what they were a year ago.
The troubled Swiss bank has eleven men and one woman on its board; chairman Peter Kuhr, vice chairmen Stephan Haeringer and Sergio Marchionne, Ernesto Bertarelli, Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, Rolf Meyer, Helmut Panke, David Sidwell, Peter Spuhler, Peter Voser, Lawrence Weinbach and Joerg Woller.
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