Ex-UBS bosses forgo $27.7m pay

Three former bosses at Swiss bank UBS are to forgo 33m Swiss francs ($27.7m; £18.1m) in salary and other payments.

Ex-chairman Marcel Ospel, former vice president Stephan Haeringer and ex-chief financial officer Marco Suter oversaw huge losses at the bank.

The Swiss government launched a bailout package for UBS last month, which was worth about $60bn.

UBS welcomed the voluntary gesture by the former bosses who left after the scale of the subprime losses emerged.

The three said they "want to make it clear that they are acing up to reality" said UBS, which has had to write-down almost $49bn since the sub-prime crisis started.

"The move to forfeit the remuneration is entirely voluntary and should in no way be construed as an admission of guilt in a legal sense," the bank added.

'Inconceivable'

Excessive bonuses paid to executives of financial institutions that have lost billions of pounds during the credit crunch have been widely criticised.

Indeed, governments across the world have insisted that excessive bonuses be addressed as a condition of bank bail out packages.

Mr Ospel said that after the government bailout he realised he must take "decisive action".

"I hope that my action will help to resolve a situation that was inconceivable to me until a short time ago."

Mr Haering and Mr Suter said that "as executive board members we helped shape the strategy of UBS over the years".

"From the start there was no question that in this difficult situation we would express solidarity to each other and be loyal to UBS."

Former chief executive Peter Wuffli, who left UBS in July 2007, said he would not take 12m Swiss francs he was to receive.

UBS has already said that it would stop paying a bonus to chairman Peter Kurer from next year. He has already forgone any bonus for 2007 and 2008.