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Reports: UBS to overhaul i-bank to boost profit, cut costs

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Reports: UBS to overhaul i-bank to boost profit, cut costs

UBS Group AG is set to announce a sweeping revamp of its investment bank that may include hundreds of job cuts as it looks to drive profitability and reduce costs at the division following several quarters of lackluster performance, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Under the revamp, the Swiss lender will merge its main equities division with its smaller foreign exchange, rates and credit trading operations to form a single securities and trading unit, three people with knowledge of the changes told the newspaper. The combined unit will be headed by Jason Barron, head of equities, and George Athanasopoulos, head of FX, rates and currencies.

Ros Stephenson and Javier Oficialdegui will be appointed global investment banking co-heads and will manage the bank's capital markets and M&A operations, the people said. The unit will also shift to a global structure from its previous regional arrangement, and will be rebranded from corporate client solutions.

UBS will merge all of its debt and equity capital markets activities into one global unit under Brendan Connolly, its former head of leveraged debt capital markets, the FT added.

Investment banking co-heads Piero Novelli and Rob Karofsky are looking to simplify the group's structure and drive earnings with the changes, the sources said.

UBS is set to announce the revamp at a town hall Sept. 5, the FT reported.

Meanwhile, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters that the reorganization will be carried out by the end of 2019, and will not include a specific number of job cuts.