A Swiss corporate governance foundation which rallied 45% of UBS shareholders behind demands for an independent audit of sub-prime holdings, this morning slammed the lack of financial expertise on the bank's board following the decision of chairman Marcel Ospel to step down following fresh losses and writedowns of $19bn (â¬12bn) for the first quarter.
Dominique Biedermann, executive director of The Ethos Foundation, a Swiss corporate governance foundation, said: "A key question for UBS is over the composition of the board. At the moment only Ospel and Stephan Haeringer have any banking experience. The other nine board members are not financial specialists. This is not acceptable."
