Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privée, which faces hefty losses in the alleged Ponzi scheme run by money manager Bernard Madoff, is threatening to pull several billion dollars of investments from large US hedge funds because they don't use a full-time independent administrator.

The effort by Union Bancaire Privée, or UBP, is notable because it is one of the world's largest investors in hedge funds, with about $124.5bn (€91.7bn) of assets as of June. The Geneva-based bank has said it had about $700m in Madoff-related investments through its funds-of-funds and client portfolios.