Farewell, Marcel Ospel. The former UBS chairman did not seek re-election to the board of the Swiss bank at its annual general meeting yesterday. It was just as well since, after $37bn (£19bn) in subprime-related losses, he might not have survived.

His downfall was a long time coming. It has been 13 years since Swiss Bank Corporation acquired S.G. Warburg, the first move in his effort to create a top-tier global investment bank. After that came the 1997 acquisition of Dillon Read and Mr Ospel's canny reversal of SBC into the troubled UBS in 1998.