HONG KONG (Reuters) - UBS <UBSG.S> will cut up to 30 jobs in the major centres of Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo after combining its global markets and banking businesses, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The job cuts at the Swiss bank started last week and were centred on both "front and back office" positions in the trading and investment banking divisions of the global bank, said the person, who declined to be named.
UBS said in September that it would combine its global markets and banking businesses in a move to pare back its management structure and revamp its flagging market share.
As part that move, the bank's main equities unit will be merged with its smaller foreign exchange, rates and credit trading (FRC) operations to form a single 'Global Markets' securities and trading unit.
Ros Stephenson and Javier Oficialdegui were named global co-heads of the newly renamed Global Banking unit, overseeing global M&A, IPOs and capital markets activities.
The major Asian financial centres of Hong Kong and Singapore, which hold the majority of UBS Asian workforces, would be most impacted by the latest round of redundancies while positions were also cut in Sydney and Tokyo, the person said.
Most of the front line investment banking changes were limited to junior staff, he added.
UBS has 10,000 people employed in Asia and a bank spokesman declined to comment on the most recent round of job cuts.
Bloomberg reported earlier on Monday that UBS was cutting about 40 jobs in Asia Pacific.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
