UBS announces major boardroom reshuffle

Four of the bank's 12 board members will step down in conjunction with an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Oct. 2, it said.

UBS shares fell 5.3 percent to close at 20.30 francs ($19.94), but had struck an all-time low of 19.81 Swiss francs ($19.46) earlier in the day.

The shares have been seen as weighed down recently by expectations of further losses in the second quarter, concerns over a tax dispute with the United States and fears that investors may have pulled out some funds.

Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank welcomed the boardroom changes, which will see Stephan Haeringer, Rolf Meyer, Peter Spuhler and Lawrence Weinbach leave the board. Replacements have not been named.

UBS Vice Chairman Sergio Marchionne will be a senior independent director and act as a liaison between investors and the board. Marchionne heads the Italian automaker Fiat.

UBS also said it is putting in place new corporate governance rules to separate the responsibilities of the board and the bank's top executives. The board will be responsible for strategy, while the executives led by Marcel Rohner will be responsible for day-to-day operations.

The bank is likely to inform investors in October about the impact of measures to limit further damage resulting from its subprime investments.

Swiss newspaper reports over the weekend said the bank would not issue a profit warning for its second quarter, indirectly confirming market expectations that UBS on Aug. 12 will report a net loss of 1 billion to 5 billion francs ($980 million-$4.9 billion) for the three months ending June 30.

Switzerland's biggest bank has been badly affected by the U.S. subprime crisis, writing down $37.4 billion over the past 10 months, during which its share price more than halved.