<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published October 18, 2008
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Pay back your bonuses, angry Swiss tell UBS former chiefs
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</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#fffff1><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=124 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>'I'm outraged that Marcel Ospel has earned Pharaoh-like salaries for 4 to 5 years and that when the bank wobbles, he can keep it all.'
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>SWITZERLAND reacted angrily against former top managers of Swiss banking giant UBS, calling on them to return their bonuses, after the state rescued the bank from the credit crisis with a US$60 billion lifeline on Thursday.
'Mr Ospel, pay back your bonus! Now! Immediately!' screamed the front page of tabloid Blick, referring to former UBS chairman Marcel Ospel.
Mr Ospel was forced to resign earlier this year, handing over his job to Peter Kurer, after the bank incurred billions in damages because of the US sub-prime crisis.
Chairman of UBS since 2001, Mr Ospel has been the whipping boy of the crisis, irking many with the huge bonuses he raked in during the bank's better years.
In an interview with Swiss weekly magazine Bilan earlier this year, Swiss president Pascal Couchepin said: 'I'm outraged that Marcel Ospel has earned Pharaoh-like salaries for four to five years and that when the bank wobbles, he can keep it all.' Blick pointed out that while Mr Ospel had given up his bonus in 2007, he cashed in 24 million francs' worth of bonuses in 2006.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>'As a reminder: Under Ospel's leadership, UBS tumbled into its deepest crisis ever,' said the newspaper.
The centre-right political party FDP also called on former UBS managers to return their bonuses. 'To be liberal means no free pass for irresponsible leadership of companies... The previous leadership of UBS had collapsed. We demand that they at least pay back the bonuses they had received in the past years,' the party said.
But the bank's current chairman Mr Kurer told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper there were no legal grounds to seek the money back. 'It was simply errors of judgement and management,' he said. 'In order to demand money back, you need to prove that in the legal sense, a wrongful act was committed. That was not the case. There are no legal grounds to demand that the bonuses be returned.'
The government acknowledged that steps were needed to shore up confidence in Swiss banking, particularly in UBS, the country's biggest bank, which saw a colossal net outflow of funds reaching 83.7 billion Swiss francs (S$109.6 billion) in the third quarter as clients took their assets elsewhere.
The emergency help for UBS will see the Swiss state taking a temporary stake of 9.3 per cent in the bank and lending a massive US$54 billion to isolate its illiquid assets. -- AFP [/FONT]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Pay back your bonuses, angry Swiss tell UBS former chiefs
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Swiss president Pascal Couchepin
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'Mr Ospel, pay back your bonus! Now! Immediately!' screamed the front page of tabloid Blick, referring to former UBS chairman Marcel Ospel.
Mr Ospel was forced to resign earlier this year, handing over his job to Peter Kurer, after the bank incurred billions in damages because of the US sub-prime crisis.
Chairman of UBS since 2001, Mr Ospel has been the whipping boy of the crisis, irking many with the huge bonuses he raked in during the bank's better years.
In an interview with Swiss weekly magazine Bilan earlier this year, Swiss president Pascal Couchepin said: 'I'm outraged that Marcel Ospel has earned Pharaoh-like salaries for four to five years and that when the bank wobbles, he can keep it all.' Blick pointed out that while Mr Ospel had given up his bonus in 2007, he cashed in 24 million francs' worth of bonuses in 2006.
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The centre-right political party FDP also called on former UBS managers to return their bonuses. 'To be liberal means no free pass for irresponsible leadership of companies... The previous leadership of UBS had collapsed. We demand that they at least pay back the bonuses they had received in the past years,' the party said.
But the bank's current chairman Mr Kurer told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper there were no legal grounds to seek the money back. 'It was simply errors of judgement and management,' he said. 'In order to demand money back, you need to prove that in the legal sense, a wrongful act was committed. That was not the case. There are no legal grounds to demand that the bonuses be returned.'
The government acknowledged that steps were needed to shore up confidence in Swiss banking, particularly in UBS, the country's biggest bank, which saw a colossal net outflow of funds reaching 83.7 billion Swiss francs (S$109.6 billion) in the third quarter as clients took their assets elsewhere.
The emergency help for UBS will see the Swiss state taking a temporary stake of 9.3 per cent in the bank and lending a massive US$54 billion to isolate its illiquid assets. -- AFP [/FONT]
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