Swiss Bank UBS Announces Massive Lay Offs of 10,000 Jobs Worldwide [VIDEO]

UBS has announced it is planning to cut as many as 10,000 jobs over the next two years - nearly 16 percent of its global workforce.

The redundancy is aimed at saving CHF3.4bn (£2.66bn) as it is planning to reduce its investment bank operations.

"This decision has been a difficult one, particularly in a business such as ours that is all about its people," said UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti.

"Some reductions will result from natural attrition and we will take whatever measures we can to mitigate the overall effect."

The move is expected to speed up the bank's efforts to meet its capital goals at a faster pace. In June, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has issued a stern warning to both UBS and rival Credit Suisse for falling behind in capital requirements under international Basel III rules, which are coming into force in 2019.

By slimming down its fixed income operations, Switzerland's biggest bank is likely to cut down its risk-weighted assets by an additional 100 billion Swiss francs ($107 bn), the Bloomberg Business week reported.

The job cut was announced as the bank reported its third quarter results for the July to September period.

UBS posted a net loss of 2.17bn Swiss francs in the third quarter as against the profit of 1.02bn Swiss francs a year earlier. It attributed the loss to an impairment charge of 3.1bn Swiss francs which the bank will be needed to cover the cost of the changes to its investment banking arm.

UBS has lost 39bn Swiss francs (£26bn; $42bn) during the financial crisis in 2008 prompting the Swiss authorities to bail out the firm. In 2011, UBS lost up to 2.3bn Swiss francs as result of an alleged rougue trading by a London-based UBS trader Kweku Adoboli.