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BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 16, 2011 UBS: Rogue Hit Firm Swiss Says It Lost $2 Billion on London Employee's Unauthorized Bets

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By DEBORAH BALL,PAUL SONNE and CARRICK MOLLENKAMP UBS AG said a racked up as much as $2 billion in losses using the firm's own money, a dramatic admission that raised new questions about the ability of one of the world's largest to manage risk and global regulators' ability to monitor it.

The losses stemmed from unauthorized derivatives-trading bets, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bank said no client positions were affected.

The Swiss bank made the discovery late Wednesday and notified London police at 1 a.m. Thursday, alleging that one of its traders had committed fraud. At 3:30 a.m., police Enlarge Image arrested a 31-year-old man on "suspicion of Sarah Ainslie fraud by abuse of position." UBS said its London employee Kw eku Adoboli, show n here in 2010, allegedly lost $2 billion of the bank's The man arrested is Kweku Adoboli, money in unauthorized trades. according to the person familiar with the matter, and is a trader in London who makes bets using UBS's money on financial instruments tied to exchange-traded funds, which allow clients to trade securities that track the performance of broad indexes. Police said the person arrested hasn't been charged, but remained in custody late Thursday. Mr. Adoboli couldn't be reached for comment.

According to the person familiar with the matter, John Hughes, a trader who worked with Mr. Adoboli, has resigned. Mr. Hughes didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

The bank has suspended a number of other members of the desk, pending questioning as to whether any were involved. An equities trader is believed to have racked up $2 billion in losses, prompting questions of risk-taking Email Newsletters and Alerts controls at the bank, Dana Cimilluca reports on the The crisis slammed shares of UBS, which on Markets Hub. (Photo: AFP / Getty Images.) Thursday fell nearly 11% in Swiss trading and The latest news and analysis delivered to your in-box. Check the 10% in New York Exchange trading. boxes below to sign up. News Alert In Today's Paper Moody's Investors Service said it was reviewing UBS's credit rating for a possible downgrade, citing concerns about UBS's reputation and its abilities to manage risk and rebuild its This Week's Most Popular Management News investment bank. Moody's said its review will focus on "ongoing weaknesses" in UBS's risk

management "that have become evident again by the events leading" to the trading loss. SIGN UP Moody's said it believed a $2 billion loss would be financially "manageable" for UBS. New! To sign up for Keyword or To view or change all of your The losses raised questions among industry executives about supervision at the bank, as well Symbol Alerts click here. email settings, visit the Email as the ability of regulators to police such activity. Setup Center.

Various aspects of the scheme remain Bad Bets, Big Losses unclear, including which specific trades Mr. Most Popular Video A look at traders known for bad bets. Adoboli allegedly executed, how such heavy losses could be generated without supervisors knowing and the way the bank uncovered the

unauthorized trades.

UBS declined requests to provide details. Watch Out For Ma i n Liby a n Por t Netflix Spins Off Roused Oligarch Ba ck i n Bu si n ess DV D a n d V ideo The Swiss financial regulator Finma, the 0:46 1:07 St rea m in g Serv ices Swiss Finance Ministry and the Swiss central 4:10 bank all declined to comment on the potential

View Interactive loss or its likely causes, as did the U.K.'s Finance & Accounting Jobs Mike Clarke/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Financial Services Authority. Senior Control Analyst - Citigroup Inc. Because of the way UBS's operations are Management Accountant - Robert Half Read More structured in the U.K., it wasn't immediately clear which country's regulator was Entry Level Mortgage Opportunities in Minneapolis area - UBS's Adoboli Admitted to Trades $11+/hr - Mergis Group responsible for the London ETF operation. UBS to Lean More on Asia? Valuation Methodologies Controller - UBS AG UBS's Loss Taints Its Turnaround The losses from alleged unauthorized trading Arrested Trader Was Well-Educated, 'Very rank among the largest in the history of keyword city, state, zip FIND JOBS Polite' finance. Over the past two decades, banks Questions Arise About UBS Risk Controls MORE JOBS AND CAREER NEWS including Société Générale SA, Barings PLC UBS's Unusual Set-Up Muddies Regulatory Technology Jobs | IT Jobs | Sales Jobs | Marketing Jobs Picture and Kidder Peabody also have been victims of alleged rogue traders. Heard on the Street: UBS Rightly Puts ETFs in FINS for Employers & Recruiters » POST A JOB Spotlight The news dealt a heavy blow to efforts by Heard on the Street: UBS Joins the Delta Farce UBS Chief Executive Oswald Grübel to win More in Business Heard on the Street: Faith in UBS Goes back client confidence in a bank that was Customers Jeer Netflix Split Plan Rogue among the hardest hit by the financial crisis. Tyco to Split Into 3 Companies Deal Journal: Meet Kweku Adoboli It raised fresh questions about UBS's risk- Transatlantic Weighs Pact for Validus Deal Journal: UBS Reputation Battered Again management systems three years after its Commentary: It's Not Rogue When You Win investment bank had to write down about $50 Probe Sought in Soly ndra Bankruptcy Case billion in securities trades. Deal Journal: Rogue Traders Through History UBS Raises Tally on Losses The Source: Banks Can't Stop Rogue Traders For five years, Mr. Adoboli has worked on a Letter to UBS Staff on Unauthorized Trades desk that trades large baskets of securities Kweku Adoboli Most Popular Topics: or allows clients to bet on them through From the Archive options or other instruments, according to a Read Emailed Video Commented After the Fall: Life Moves On for Rogue Traders LinkedIn profile under the name Kweku Adoboli. 1. Customers Jeer Netflix Split Plan

He traded contracts, using the bank's 2. Greece Seeks Further Cuts money, based on securities included in ETFs, according to people familiar with the matter. 3. Obama Proposes New Plan to Cut Deficit

His desk specialized in so-called Delta One 4. Obama Calls for New Taxes on Wealthy products that allow banks and investors to track 5. Air Shows Draw Scrutiny underlying assets or indexes. The "delta" terms describe a level of risk—a delta of one implies Most Read Articles Feed limited risk of losses. There are about a half-dozen Delta One products that banks offer, including ETFs.

One avenue that is being examined is whether the Latest Headlines trading loss is tied to the volatility in European Obama Calls for New Taxes on Wealthy , a result of worries that Greece could default. One possibility is that Mr. Adoboli picked the wrong Fannie, Freddie to Raise Fees time to either bet that a European stock index would Probe Sought in Soly ndra Bankruptcy Case rise or fall and that an ETF was used in the trade. Court Rules Padilla Sentence Was Too Lenient ETFs, which typically track indexes and Former Detroit Schools Official Sentenced to Five Years trade like stocks, have become a big business for Violent Crime in U.S. Falls for 4th-Straight Y ear banks. Global ETF assets under management rose to $1.3 trillion last year from $410 billion in 2005, according to the Bank for International Fed Weighs Jobs, Inflation Targets Settlements. EU and Canada Spar Over Climate Law Georgia Board Hears Death-Row Inmate's Case Some ETFs have become increasingly complex and opaque because banks have identified ways to replicate derivative exposure using ETFs. Effort on Home Loans Stalls

Before trading, Mr. Adoboli worked for three years in a "back office" position as a trade-support More Headlines analyst, according to the LinkedIn profile. Back-office employees input transactions and carry out accounting relating to trades, while so-called front-office workers execute trades and speak with clients.

Mr. Adoboli appeared to have initially worked with the technical side of these trades before becoming an employee executing these transactions. Some banks have restricted the shift of back-office, technical personnel to the client-facing trading desk because of the risk of their exploiting their knowledge to manipulate trades.

UBS didn't respond to a request for comment on whether it had such a restriction.

UBS's investment bank has been struggling to come back fully from its near-collapse in 2008. In the wake of huge write-downs, the unit posted a loss of 34.4 billion Swiss francs ($30.4 billion) in 2008, forcing the Swiss National Bank to bail the bank out.

Since then, Mr. Grübel and Carsten Kengeter, investment-banking chief, have battled pressure from regulators and politicians to drastically downsize the unit, even as they fought to lure clients back. Swiss regulators have pushed for UBS and Credit Suisse Group to hold extra-large capital cushions.

News of the losses could accelerate a revamp of Mr. Grübel's investment-banking ambitions. In July, he scaled back his targets for the unit in light of disappointing first-half performance and new regulations.

The development could raise questions as to how long Mr. Grübel, who began his career as a trader, will stay on. A former Credit Suisse chief executive, he came out of retirement in February 2009 to help turn around UBS.

Until recently, Mr. Adoboli lived in a loft apartment in London's trendy Spitalfields neighborhood, near the London offices of UBS. Outside the apartment building on Thursday, his former landlord, Philip Octave, said the trader four months ago moved out of the apartment, which rented for £1,000 ($1,570) a week.

He called Mr. Adoboli "very, very polite, a salesman sort of chap."

A Facebook profile under Mr. Adoboli's name, removed from public view on the site Thursday afternoon, listed the Nigerian musician Fela Kuti and dance-music artist MC Xander among his favorites and said he was also a fan of the show "The Wire" and a member of two Facebook groups tied to Ghana, his home country.

He joined UBS about two months after graduating, with honors, from the University of Nottingham with a bachelor's degree in e-commerce and digital business, a spokeswoman for the university said. Before that he attended the Ackworth School, a posh Quaker boarding and day school in West Yorkshire, England.

—Sara Schaefer Muñoz, Dana Cimilluca, Alistair MacDonald and Sebastian Walsh contributed to this article.

Write to Deborah Ball at [email protected], Paul Sonne at [email protected] and Carrick Mollenkamp at [email protected]

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