More British banking jobs are at risk after UBS said it is to cut up to 10,000 roles worldwide in moves to shrink its investment banking arm. The Zurich-based bank plans to reduce its headcount from 64,000 to 54,000 by 2015, with some 75% of the losses made outside Switzerland. UBS, which has around 6,500 staff in London, said the restructuring would deliver savings of 5.4 billion Swiss francs (£3.5 billion) by 2015. The bank, which wants to shift focus away from investment banking operations, reported a 40% slide in pre-tax operating profits to 2.3 billion Swiss francs (£1.5 billion) in the six months to June 30. Chief executive Sergio Ermotti announced the plans on Tuesday as part of the Zurich-based bank's third quarter results. Mr Ermotti said the investment unit, which has been hit by a series of costly blunders in recent years, will "continue to be significant global player in its core businesses". Ahead of the cuts, the value of UBS's stock rose 7.3% to close at 13.12 Swiss francs (£8.73) in Monday on the Zurich exchange. The bank posted a net profit loss of 2.17 billion Swiss francs (£1.44 billion), compared with a profit of 1.02 billion Swiss francs (£679 million) during the same three-month period through September 2011. In what it called "a significant acceleration" in its transformation, the Zurich-based bank said it would sharpen its focus on the investment bank and appoint a new executive to lead it. Mr Ermotti said the investment unit, which has been hit by a series of costly blunders in recent years, will "continue to be a significant global player in its core businesses". The bank attributed some of the declining profit to a pretax charge of 863 million Swiss francs (£574 million) linked to an accounting rule on how banks must value their debt. | 
