Jeffrey Mayer, former co-head of fixed income at Bear Stearns, who turned down a $27m (€17m) offer to join JP Morgan Chase after the merger of the two, has moved to UBS, which wrote down billions of dollars due to its aggressive expansion in structured products and debt.

UBS said in a statement that Mayer is joining as joint global head of the fixed income, currencies and commodities business within its investment bank.