Credit Crunch Prayer

Evening Standard: City Spy
Say a Little Prayer for UBS
It was just over a year ago that UBS began its descent into the credit-crunch abyss with the ousting of chief executive Peter Wuffli, and it doesn’t look to be in any better shape now.

So it is perhaps no surprise the bank is calling on one of its respected former employees for divine guidance. That man is Ken Costa, who now works at Lazard and is advising UBS on its strategic options. Costa is the former chairman of UBS’s European investment banking operation and, until last year, a 31-year veteran of the Swiss bank. He is also a lay preacher at Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican church in Knightsbridge, London, and author of God at Work, in which he writes about how his faith gave him strength when he lost sleep over a proprietary position that UBS had taken in a client’s stock. While praying is not a formal risk-management tool, it is probably worth a go as the credit crisis shows little signs of abating.
According to the FT, ‘it seems Mr Costa doesn’t have an official role in the strategic review Lazard is conducting for UBS, where there might still be some sensitivities.’