UBS has moved with commendable speed to wind up its Dillon Read Capital Management hedge fund operation, created by its former investment banking chief executive John Costas less than two years ago.

Its performance was unsatisfactory, producing losses of $125m (€91.9m) for UBS trading accounts in its first quarter following a shake out for mortgage-backed securities. Some suspect Dillon Read also suffered once its traders no longer had automatic access to the information they were able to use when they were part of the UBS proprietary trading division.