Subprime crisis has eroded trust in bankers

IT was more than ironic that Swiss banking giant UBS, the largest European bank by assets, recorded a loss of €9.5 billion two days after one of its subsidiaries said Irish banks were still bad value.

In the context of what has been going on internationally, the boys at UBS had some cheek to put a sell order on AIB and Anglo Irish, neither of which have exposure to the subprime sector, and neither of which looks likely to post a loss anytime soon, despite the serious slowdown in our economy.

UBS’s loss links directly into the scandal in the US where banks were indiscriminate in their mortgage lending and the downturn now threatens the entire US economy.