UBS CEO resigns amid scandal

Swiss Bank UBS has announced the resignation of their CEO, Oswald Gruebel, just two weeks after the banking giant was caught in a $2.3 billion rouge trading scandal. 

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (Catholic Online) - UBS said is a statement that they have accepted the resignation. Sergio Ermotti has been named as the interim CEO.

The board says it regrets the resignation of Gruebel, but that he, "feels that it is his duty to assume responsibility for the recent unauthorised trading incident''. Chairman of the board, Kaspar Villiger had praise for Gruebel saying that he is a man of "uncompromising principles and integrity." He also added that during Gruebel's tenure, "he achieved an impressive turnaround and strengthened UBS fundamentally''.

Arrested in the incident, is Kweku Adoboli, a UBS trader accused of the $2.3 billion fraud. 
The board has also promised to fully cooperate with the investigation into what it is referring to as a "rogue trading" scheme. They also promised to conduct an independent investigation and implement new measures to ensure that such an incident cannot ever occur again. 

Villiger also told reporters that the UBS board did not want Grueber to resign immediately, but wished him to stay on until spring of 2012, when a key shareholder's meeting is scheduled to take place, however, it was reluctantly agreed that anything less than an immediate resignation would not have sent a strong enough signal to shareholders and the public about how seriously UBS is taking the situation. 

UBS has been under international pressure to take firm action in the face of the incident.
Gruebel has a strong reputation in European banking circles. In the early 2000's, he engineered the recovery of Credit Suisse after that institution took losses following the Enron scandal. He made the bank profitable again after just one year. Also, he proved capable of making UBS profitable after 18 months as its CEO, cutting staff and costs making the bank much more efficient. 

Kweku Adoboli will remain in jail at least until October 20, and is currently facing four charges of fraud. He has told the media that he is "sorry."

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