Foreign banks spare the ax in China, Asia

SHANGHAI: While many foreign banks stung by the US subprime mortgage crisis are trimming their headcounts, they have largely held back the ax in high-growth markets in China and many other parts of Asia.

UBS, one of Europe's biggest banking groups, said that the process of reviewing and reallocating resources "will result in a minimal number of redundancies in the region (including China)". The staff restructuring "will have no impact on UBS' continued growth in the region", it said.

The group announced 5,500 job cuts worldwide last week, after reporting a $10.9 billion net loss in the first quarter.