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UBS chief defends salary hike
The chief executive of UBS, Oswald Grübel, has defended the Swiss bank’s decision to increase the base salaries of its investment bankers. In a leaked memo, Grübel said that high salaries were necessary for the profitability of the company and said the company would stick to its guns, even if it took flak in the “emotional debate” about salaries. The bank raised salaries after it was forced to limit bonuses by the Swiss government, after it took a nine per cent stake in the bank in exchange for a bailout worth more than £3.3bn. UBS wrote down more than £30bn in the midst of the financial crisis.