UBS, still reeling from the $2.3bn trading scandal, is shutting down its money-making, stand-alone Debt Restructuring business.  The move apparently has irked some senior staffers, the NYPost reports. It's likely that UBS personnel will have to develop some thicker skin, because this may be just the first big move of many under interim CEO Sergio Ermotti, as he scrambles to sort out the firm’s overall strategy for its investment bank. The surprise move to fold the low-risk, high-profit restructuring unit comes after veteran Steven Smith resigned from the firm.  The restructuring business, which provides financing in corporate bankruptcies, will be folded into a division that offers high-interest rate loans. Smith reportedly is in talks to join L.A. private equity firm Aurora Capital Group.  Another senior restructuring executive, Doug Lane, is exiting UBS as soon as next week - he's talking with merchant bank Global Leveraged Finance. A UBS spokesperson said that the moves do not mean that the firm is “exiting the restructuring business.”  Yet, executives within the restructuring group reportedly have been informing clients that the business at the firm will be “de-emphasized.” Cost-cutting plans, including staff reductions, already were underway even before the UBS trading scandal. The firm’s top brass also had communicated to staffers within the investment bank that management wanted to slash as much as $100mn in costs. Meanwhile, rising UBS star Aryeh Bourkoff, who was recently appointed head of investment banking in the Americas, has told executives that he wants to grow the loan business catering to private equity funds.   [NY Post, 11/12/11]