U’ve Been Sacked (UBS nickname)

UBS (originally the Union Bank of Switzerland) is one of the world’s largest banks and has several branches in Manhattan. When Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation announced a merger in December 1997, the joke was that “UBS” stands for “U’ve Been Sacked” and “SBC” stands for “Sacked Before Christmas.” When UBS announced job cuts in 2012, the nickname “U’ve Been Sacked” was used again.
 
Other UBS nicknames include “Union des Bandits Suisses”  (since at least 2001) and “Union Bank of Swindlers”/United Bank of Swindlers” (since at least 2009).
   
     
Wikipedia: UBS
UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company, incorporated in the Canton of Zurich, and co-headquartered in Zürich and Basel. The company provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, whereby in Switzerland, these services are also offered to retail clients. The name UBS was originally an abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland, but it ceased to be a representational abbreviation after the bank’s merger with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998. The company traces its origins to 1856, when the earliest of its predecessor banks was founded.
 
UBS is the biggest bank in Switzerland, operating in more than 50 countries with about 60,000 employees around the world, as of 2014.
   
The Irish Times     
UBS and SBC do not spell good news
Fri, Dec 19, 1997, 00:00
The black humourists have been out in force in the City ever since Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation announced the megamerger that will see 3,000 jobs bite the dust.
 
Question: What does UBS stand for? Answer: U’ve been sacked!
 
Question: What does SBC stand for? Answer: Sacked before Christmas!
 
Google Books
Business World (India)
Volume 17
1998
Pg. 304:
Songs of Sacking I
Last Christmas was hardly a pleasant one for workers at Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) and Swiss Banking Corp (SBC) around the world, many of whom got pink slips as presents following the merger between the two banks. Staff in the two companies joked grimly that the real expansion of their names was U’ve Been Sacked and Sacked Before Christmas.
     
Google Books
Futures & OTC World
Issues 320-331
1998
Pg. 9:
And early on heartless wagswere saying “U’ve Been Sacked.”
 
Twitter
Anthony Peters
‏@therealADMP
UBS - U’ll Be Sacked. That was yesterday; today it’s U’ve Been Sacked…...
7:30 AM - 30 Oct 2012
 
The Guardian (UK)
UBS to cut up to 3,000 jobs in London
Axe falls swiftly as Swiss bank moves to halve City workforce in global cull of up to 10,000 jobs
Josephine Moulds and Julia Kollewe
Tuesday 30 October 2012 14.58 EDT
(...)
Some of those who lost their jobs took to Twitter to vent their anger, where the acronym for UBS “U’ve Been Sacked” made a comeback. It was invented in 1998 when the company fired hundreds of people following the merger of two Swiss banks.
   
Business Insider
Why UBS Will Die
G.M.Trevelyan
Nov. 10, 2012, 8:45 AM
One common criticism I hear on the street is UBS, the U’ve Been Sacked bank, or Ultra Bulls**it S**t bank has a poor reputation. Either through routinely failing institutional clients by wiring money incorrectly to a counter-party while they’re in the middle of a lawsuit. Or finding their contracts don’t mean very much when the words ‘capped-fees’ is just there to charm, it’s misnomer in Swiss-German that means it’s uncapped; a kind of screw you get out clause.