Rogue UBS Trader Turned Himself In

So who was the crack financial sleuth who caught rogue UBS trader Kweku Adoboli? Um, that’d be Kweku Adoboli. UBS’ internal systems didn’t blink at Adoboli’s $2 billion screw-up; it only came to light because he brought it to his bosses’ attention, the BBC reports. The revelation is likely to undermine confidence in UBS’ ability to manage risks. (Adoboli remains in police custody and was charged today with fraud and false accounting, notes the Wall Street Journal.)

“Why did the systems not spot this before it got out of control?” asks one business professor. “He must have found a way round the system to get this far into debt.” The UK’s Financial Services Authority is investigating why UBS didn’t spot the trades itself, and Swiss authorities are now pressuring the bank to either close its investment operations or spin them off into a business separate from its retail banking unit. (More Kweku Adoboli stories.)