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In this file photo, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti speaks at a news conferenceSteffen Schmidt/The Associated Press

When employees of UBS AG's investment banking operations in Canada showed up to work Tuesday, their pass cards worked, unlike colleagues around the world who found themselves locked out and jobless as the bank cuts 10,000 staff.

UBS is letting go thousands as it exits businesses in the fixed income, commodities and currencies [FICC] arenas, where the bank has decided it can't be a profitable competitor in a world of higher capital regulations. The bank is going to instead focus, it seems, on its equities and relationship banking platform.

Given the scope of the global changes, it's unlikely that Canada will be totally spared any tinkering on the staffing side, but most of the businesses that the bank is getting out of are not very big for UBS in Canada.

The firm in Canada has long been focused on equities and deal advisory services. UBS sold its commodities trading business in Canada a number of years ago, and got most of its FICC services for Canadian clients from other offices around the world.

In fact, there's a view among some at UBS Canada that the restructuring announced on Tuesday will be good for the operations in this country, as capital that had been tied up supporting derivatives trades and other FICC business can be reinvested in the equities business. UBS currently has about 100 investment banking staff in Canada.

And the stock is up, which is something those who still work at UBS have not seen enough lately.

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Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 18/03/24 6:40pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
UBS-N
UBS Group Ag ADR
-1.19%31.55

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