Risk management and control

Good risk management and control lie at the heart of any business, particularly a financial services firm – they are integral parts of providing consistent, high-quality returns to shareholders. If we fail to adequately manage and control our risks we may suffer significant financial losses. Potentially more important is the resultant damage to our reputation, which could undermine our share price by reducing our client base and impairing our ability to retain talented employees. Ultimately, regulators might be forced to impose constraints upon our business.

We recognize that taking risk is core to our financial business and that operational risks are an inevitable consequence of being in business. Our aim is not, therefore, to eliminate all risks but to achieve an appropriate balance between risk and return. Thus, in our day-to-day business and in the strategic management of our balance sheet and capital, we seek to limit the scope for adverse variations in our earnings and exposure to “stress events” for all the material risks we face.

We base our approach to risk management and control on five principles.

Business management is accountable for all the risks assumed throughout the firm and is responsible for the continuous and active management of risk exposures to ensure that risk and return are balanced. This responsibility applies not only to the traditional banking risks of credit and market risk but also to the many and varied operational risks that potentially arise from inadequate or failed internal processes, people or systems or from external causes, which may be deliberate, accidental or natural.

An independent control process is implemented when required by the nature of the risks, in particular to balance short-term profit incentives and the long-term interests of UBS. The control functions are responsible for providing an objective check on risk-taking activities.

Comprehensive, transparent and objective risk disclosure to our senior management, the Board of Directors, shareholders, regulators, rating agencies and other stakeholders is the cornerstone of the risk control process.

We protect our earnings by controlling risk at the level of individual exposures, at a portfolio level and in aggregate, across all risk types and businesses, relative to our risk capacity – the level of risk we are capable of absorbing, based on our earnings power.

We protect our reputation by managing and controlling the risks incurred in the course of our business, and for this reason we avoid concentrations of exposure and limit potential stress losses, not only from credit, market and liquidity risks but also from operational risks. We avoid extreme positions in transactions that are sensitive for tax, legal, regulatory or accounting reasons, and adopt a cautious approach to any risks that cannot be sensibly evaluated or priced. We adopt the highest standards in protecting the confidentiality and integrity of our client information, and aim to maintain the highest ethical standards in all our business dealings.

All employees, but in particular those involved in risk decisions, must make UBS’s reputation an overriding concern. Responsibility for our reputation cannot be delegated or syndicated.