Swiss banking giant UBS said it had expanded the number of employees that are subject to internal background checks to around 15% of its workforce as it grapples with a probe into potential rigging of the global foreign exchange market.
Under the new policy, roughly 9,000 employees of the Zurich-based bank will be subject to internal vetting, a spokesman for UBS told Reuters.
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UBS had already been vetting some current employees but would not confirm how many, the spokesman said.
He added that the expansion was part of the bank’s operational risk strategy.
Senior management, including managing directors, will continue to be vetted. Under current checks, a larger number of specialist staff members with access to sensitive information will also be subject to criminal background checks, as well as scrutiny of their credit rating, UBS said.
Two years ago, UBS agreed to pay US$1.5 billion bribery in connection with efforts to rig benchmark interest rates, and last year it paid US$885 million to settle allegations it misrepresented mortgage-backed bonds during the housing bubble.
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