UBS is set to unveil a radical downsizing of its struggling investment bank next week in a move that will prompt the loss of up to 10,000 jobs across the Swiss banking group.

Switzerland’s largest bank by assets will significantly shrink the trading side and complexity of its investment bank and as a consequence cut thousands of jobs in its back office over the next few years.

The job cuts will amount to almost a sixth of the bank’s workforce of 63,500 at the end of June. They will not happen all at once, and the precise number is still unclear as the exact impact on back-office functions has not yet been determined.

It comes on top of an ongoing programme announced last year to cut 3,500 jobs.

The move highlights how banks around the world are trying to adapt to a changed regulatory and market environment that has left them with lower returns and much higher capital needs for certain business areas and national subsidiaries. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012