UBS could slash third of staff amid technology shift: CEO

Swiss banking giant UBS could shed a third of its staff over the next decade as dramatic technological changes help it streamline operations, its chief told Bloomberg in an interview published Tuesday.

"We see a lot of contraction in the number of people in our industry," UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti said in the interview, acknowledging that a large share of the bank's nearly 95,000 employees and contractors could eventually become redundant.

"You can have 30 percent less," he said, pointing out that technological changes would make banking operations "faster -- much more efficient, proficient," allowing a single banker to double his or her client load.

The change, he said, would not happen all at once.

"It's not the Big Bang; it's going to be very gradual," Ermotti said.

While there will surely be fewer jobs, he stressed that those remaining would "be much more interesting jobs, where the human content is crucial to the delivery of the service."

And while technology would help banks like UBS reduce costs, Ermotti pointed out that "you're also going to have to reinvest a lot of your savings to keep your tech capabilities up to speed."

Smash hit: Ping pong robot takes on Olympian at Tokyo tech fair
Chiba, Japan (AFP) Oct 2, 2017
A ping-pong-playing robot served up a hit at a top Tokyo tech fair Monday, while a barely-moving machine in the shape of a sloth aimed to provide a relaxing change of pace. The alien-looking table-tennis star, named FORPHEUS, had a tough opponent, in the shape of Japan's first-ever Olympic singles medal-winner in a man-versus-machine clash. Technicians have worked on FORPHEUS's robotics ... read more

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