No one seems to have been let go from UBS's risk team yet. When they are, some may be able to find work at RBS
We've quizzed numerous risk recruiters on whether they're receiving CVs from risk people made redundant from UBS. The answer is: they're not. Even though Carsten Kengeter has declared that he's "doing everything" to review the short coming in the bank's risk controls, it seems he has yet to do dismissals.
This may change after the board meeting in Singapore. Then again, it may not. Oswald Grubel has said nothing can be done when someone acts with "criminal energy" and Mark Sanborn, chief risk officer at UBS's investment bank, only joined five months ago and can surely be absolved of any blame.
Nevertheless, Chris Whalen, co-founder and managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, says someone senior needs to accept responsibility for the recent rogue: "You need to discipline people, but you also need to find out systemically why this occurred. This was a breakdown in internal controls. They need to go from the top and work their way down to the bottom and find out why this happened. They need to shoot the boss," he suggests.
Junior and mid-ranking risk professionals at UBS may be spared the gun on the grounds both that this was a systemic issue and that the FSA has warned banks against trimming too heavily in risk and compliance.
In the event that UBS does go for another wholesale rearrangement of its risk function, recruiters say not to worry: other banks are still hiring.
"Banks are still very interested in recruiting in quant risk, counterparty valuation adjustment and counterparty credit risk," says Priya Mariannie at recruitment firm the PSD Group.
"Due to regulatory pressure, redundancies are unlikely in risk departments," suggests Adrian Marples at search firm Leathwaite International. "However, risk hiring is limited to roles that are business critical," he adds.
One bank still doing a fair amount of risk hiring is apparently RBS, which started assimilating lots of new risk people last year. It's hiring 15-20 senior VPs in quant risk, according to one recruiter.
