Prosecutors have said Adoboli, who is on trial for fraud and false accounting, created a secret account known as the umbrella while working on the bank’s ETF desk in London where he parked trading profits to cover future losses. Adoboli, 32, has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have sought to show others knew of the secret fund.
Charles Sherrard, a lawyer for Adoboli, said the bank’s share price rallied after the loss and UBS had already announced a month before the loss that it would cut staff by 3,500.
'To interpret any staff reductions to be caused by Mr. Adoboli would be unfair', Sherrard said.
While Naratil said he hadn’t stated the cuts were a direct result of Adoboli, he added that 'certainly a loss of $2.3bn would affect staffing levels'.
Bonuses at the investment bank were also reduced by about 60% after the loss. The unauthorized trading 'was one of the factors, but it wouldn’t be the sole factor' that resulted in that reduction, Naratil said.
Hit the link below to access the complete Bloomberg article:
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