UBS ex-CEO leads campaign to shake up bank

Pressure on beleaguered Swiss bank UBS AG  to break up intensified as activist investor and former chief executive Luqman Arnold demanded to meet UBS’ board and shake up its governance and structure.

Arnold‘s investment group Olivant said on Friday it controlled over 0.7 % of UBS’ capital. That would make him one of the top 10 investors in the world’s largest wealth manager, the bank hardest-hit worldwide from the subprime crisis.

UBS has rejected calls for sweeping changes, saying its dual focus on investment banking and wealth management is sound.

The bank has swept out almost all old management and seeks to raise a total of 34 billion Swiss francs ($33.5 bln) in capital, after writing down around $37 bln in bad investments borne of a breakneck expansion in investment banking.

Olivant posted a laundry list of requested changes to UBS in a letter to supervisory board member Sergio Marchionne — currently chief executive of automaker Fiat SpA.

“There is an urgent requirement for effective and relevant leadership of UBS’s supervisory board, the establishment of appropriate corporate governance, forward thinking about future capital needs, a clearer and more focused corporate strategy, a fundamental overhaul of risk discipline and more open and transparent communication,” Olivant said in a statement.