As UBS faces up to an uncertain future in light of the rogue trading scandal, staff in the investment banking division could be forgiven for thinking of Siegmund Warburg. The ultimate relationship banker, Warburg once likened a firm's reputation to "a very delicate living organism which can easily be damaged and which has to be taken care of incessantly".

Warburg, who founded UK merchant bank SG Warburg in London in 1946, said that a firm's reputation was mainly "matter of human behaviour and human standard". These words rung true on September 15, when UBS's statement announced that one of its London-based traders had caused $2.3bn in losses due to unauthorised trades.