Swiss banking giant UBS is consolidating its currency-, interest rates and credit-trading businesses into a single unit.
The move follows the Swiss bank steps to slim down its investment bank and shift focus away from riskier trading activities to wealth management and retail operations.
Andrea Orcel, head of the investment bank at UBS said that the units have undergone a number of restructures to strengthen their business models.
As part of the merger, Chris Vogelgesang, co-head of foreign exchange and precious metals, will step down from his role to exploring other opportunities at the bank.
Chris Murphy and George Athanasopoulos, members of the investment bank’s executive committee, will head the new unit. The duo will work alongside Athanasopoulos during the merger. Vogelgesang has joined UBS in 2009 from Merrill Lynch.
Athanasopoulos was formerly co-head of foreign exchange and precious metals while Murphy, was formerly head of the rates- and credit-trading business.
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By GlobalDataThe restructure comes amid regulatory probes into possible rigging in the foreign-exchange markets. As part of thee restructure, the bank has decided to exit most of debt trading at the investment bank, cut 10,000 jobs and focus on money-managing businesses.
UBS memo said: "The integration is not a change in strategy, rather a natural evolution of what we are trying to achieve."