The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) are launching a comprehensive independent investigation into the events surrounding the trading losses incurred by UBS AG in its London operations. The investigation, to be conducted by a third party firm independent of UBS, will focus:
- on the details of the unauthorised trading activity;
- on the control failures which permitted the activity to remain undetected; and
- will include an assessment of the overall strength of UBS’s controls to prevent unauthorised or fraudulent trading activity in its Investment Bank.
At the moment no indication can be given with regard to the duration of that investigation.