Peter Wuffli has paid the price for a series of stumbles at UBS in recent months and been ousted as chief executive by the Swiss banking group's board. Since the beginning of last year, shares in UBS have risen by 17.9%, significantly lagging a 31.4% rise at arch-rival Credit Suisse and 30.6% at Deutsche Bank over the same period.

Wuffli, who has been group chief executive at UBS since September 2003, has handed over his duties to his deputy Marcel Rohner and will leave the bank with immediate effect, UBS said in a statement released in the early hours this morning.