UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, is one of the biggest financial institutions in the world

UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, is one of the biggest financial institutions in the world. It was also one of the European banks hit hardest in the subprime market crisis in 2008, posting a record loss of $17 billion, and received government help to cope with its illiquid assets. UBS has also battled unsuccessfully with the United States government over the bank’s secret offshore accounts.

In November 2010, UBS cemented a deal with the American authorities under which the Swiss government would turn over the names of about 4,500 American clients suspected of evading taxes. The deal allowed the bank to avoid further action by the Justice Department in a long-running case that had already cost it $780 million in fines to avoid criminal prosecution.

In February 2011, UBS announced that its business had turned around in 2010 as it posted its first annual profit since before the financial crisis. The bank reported a profit of 7.2 billion Swiss francs ($7.5 billion) for the year in contrast to a 2009 loss of 2.7 billion francs.

But six months later, in August 2011, UBS announced it would cut 3,500 jobs over the next two and a half years to reduce costs. The bank said that about 45 percent of the 3,500 job cuts would come from its investment banking unit, which had repeatedly reported dismal figures and failed to fully recover from huge losses during the subprime mortgage crisis.

UBS said in September 2011 that a rogue trader in its investment bank, Kweku Adoboli, had lost $2 billion, delivering a fresh blow to the beleaguered bank. In an internal memo, the bank said the unauthorized trading could drag down earnings in the third quarter to a loss.

Bad Bets and Abrupt Change

UBS underwent a wide-ranging revamp in 2009, including thousands of job cuts and the appointment of a handful of new executives. The Swiss government disposed of its holdings in UBS in August, selling its 9 percent stake at a profit of more than $1 billion, a net gain of 32 percent. The government had given $6 billion Swiss francs ($5.6 billion) to UBS in October 2008 to help shore up the bank in exchange for debt convertible into common stock.

In February 2009, UBS announced that its chief executive, Marcel Rohner, who had taken the job in July 2007, had resigned and that Mr. Grübel, a former top executive at Credit Suisse, would succeed him.

UBS, the world’s largest private bank and a major engine of the Swiss economy, agreed that month to pay $780 million to United States authorities to settle accusations that it helped wealthy Americans illegally evade taxes through secret offshore bank accounts, known as “black accounts,” that went undeclared to the Internal Revenue Service.

While UBS admitted to conspiracy to defraud the I.R.S. and agreed to cooperate with the government’s continuing criminal investigation, it had fiercely resisted efforts to disclose the names of its clients. Under Swiss financial secrecy laws, disclosing client names in all but the most egregious cases is a crime.