[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, is about to get smaller as part of a global revamp, according to two people familiar with the matter.  Its European investment-banking unit will cut 80 to 90 jobs, likely before year-end – 17% of staff within the region’s investment-banking unit and include junior and senior bankers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

Not a Minority Report. Pretax profit at the investment bank, which employed 16,432 globally at the end of June, fell 55% in the first half from a year earlier.  As such, the division, including merger advisory and equity and debt capital markets, may be the first of many on the cutting board, preceding job cuts within the broader investment bank, which includes UBS’s fixed-income and equities units, said the people. 

The Zurich-based firm, which said last year it would trim about 1,600 jobs at the unit, has remained true to its word, having reached reached the headcount target it had set for the end of 2013.  Further cuts may reduce the investment bank's staff to more than 10 percent of its current population, one person estimated.  Within the securities unit, CEO Sergio Ermotti this week told Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft that the bank will continue to trim jobs to adjust to “the new reality,” and that the cuts would affect people in the front office as well as in supporting functions.

“Back in November of last year, I don’t think that even a pessimistic outlook for the next 12 months would tell you what we are living in.  The environment has completely changed. We have been very proactive in accelerating taking down costs as we saw the new environment developing and we will not be shy to continue to do so as we see the market changing." -- Mr. Ermotti, on 7/31/12.

For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 9/18/12].