When a business begins to feel the strain, as UBS has done for much of the last two years, large parts of its operations begin to be cut back and realigned. Chief executives start with the easy bit first – in the case of UBS, its investment banking business – and then move onto the hard stuff if things get really bad.

Oswald Grübel, the recently appointed chief executive of UBS, has been forced to make some really tough decisions, given the bank's dire circumstances.