UBS CFO sees no more big job cuts

Chief Financial Officer of Swiss bank UBS Marco Suter addresses a news conference in Zurich in this February 14, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Chief Financial Officer of Swiss bank UBS Marco Suter addresses a news conference in Zurich in this February 14, 2008 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

ZURICH | Tue May 6, 2008 6:46am EDT

ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS AG (UBSN.VX) is unlikely to slash jobs in its investment bank again on the scale of the 5,500 cuts announced on Tuesday but must continually adjust to market conditions, Chief Financial Offer Marco Suter said.

"In terms of large-scale reductions, I do not foresee anything (but) you will never have certainty that we are done," Suter told Reuters in an interview. "We will have to right-size our base always to capacity."

"In the investment bank, that's just the name of the game: hire and fire," he said.

Suter said the group was building up staffing at its flagship wealth management unit -- in sharp contrast to the investment bank -- and that UBS wanted to be able to stay positioned to benefit from any upturn.

"We do believe that markets will recover, so we do not want to cut into our muscle," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, UBS said it would cut 5,500 jobs in one the biggest purges seen so far from the financial markets crisis as the Swiss wealth management titan slashes the investment bank that plunged it into turmoil.

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