Blue lights flashing, a waiting police van roared into life as it prepared to drive alleged rogue trader Kweku Adoboli into custody from his home in Bethnal Green in the early hours of Thursday. And inside a building on Finsbury Avenue in the heart of the Square Mile, Adoboli's employers at UBS knew the Swiss bank was about to be rocked to its foundations – again.
The drama unfolding at UBS's London headquarters was the worst nightmare for a management who have been striving to restore the bank's reputation.
Chief executive Oswald Grübel pleaded with investors to stick with the bank, saying in a letter this weekend: "What has happened in no way diminishes [our commitment] to working with you on pursuing your financial interests and achieving your goals."
During the credit crunch, UBS was left reeling. It was bailed out by the Swiss government after being forced to write down $50bn (£31bn) linked to US mortgage-backed securities in 2008. It faced charges in the same year of providing services to American clients seeking to evade taxes and was fined nearly $800m by the US authorities in a long, tortuous case that heaped shame on the Swiss financiers.
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