UBS Investment Bank Bans Multibank, Social Chat Rooms

UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, is banning the use of multibank and social chat rooms at its investment-banking division as global regulators probe the alleged manipulation of foreign exchange rates.

“All social related chat rooms are prohibited and must be closed immediately,” the investment bank’s executive committee wrote in an internal memo to staff today. Multibank and dealer chat rooms are also banned, and any request for an exception, which can be made “for business critical use only,” will have to be approved by the executive committee member and compliance officer responsible for the specific business, it said. A spokesman for Zurich-based UBS confirmed the memo’s contents.