Oswald Grubel, chief executive of UBS, allegedly plans to shake-up top management of the bank’s struggling brokerage business in the US, which might include replacing the current head Marten Hoekstra.

But Grubel will have a difficult task convincing a suitable candidate to take over from Hoekstra. The UBS brand in the US has been severely tarnished by the fallout from an ongoing American tax investigation on the bank's offshore accounts. The business is also losing money - latest results show a loss of SFr35m in the first quarter.