去一年中，瑞士银行(UBS AG)的首席执行长郭儒博(Oswald Grubel)曾先后十次亲自出面安抚瑞银那些富裕的客户，这些人被瑞银深陷的麻烦所惊吓，威胁说要把他们存在瑞银的巨额财富移往别处。
现 年66岁的德国人郭儒博曾在瑞银的竞争对手瑞士信贷集团(Credit Suisse Group)工作到退休，去年他重出江湖接掌瑞银，以图重振这家公司。郭儒博向他出面安抚的每一位客户详细介绍了瑞银的财务形势，并向他们大略介绍了他给 瑞银制定的扭亏为盈计划。据郭儒博说，他安抚过的这十个客户最后都决定继续把钱存放在瑞银。
连 首席执行长都频繁出马见客户，这显示瑞银是多么急迫地要重新赢回以往的地位，该公司多年来一直是世界最大的私人银行。由于接连受到两次危机的沉重打击，自 2008年1月以来，瑞银的财富管理子公司流失了2,310亿瑞士法郎的资产(约合2,200亿美元)，原因是客户流失以及银行家跳槽。这家私人银行目前 管理的资产为1.7万亿瑞士法郎。这两次危机一次是美国调查瑞银帮助美国富人逃税的问题，另一次是瑞银在住房按揭贷款上押错了宝。
当瑞银下周公布第二季度收益时，投资者将从中寻找该行业务正取得进展的迹象。郭儒博和瑞银其他高管警告说，瑞银距全面复兴还有很长的路要走，但他们也表示，瑞银已经采取措施来遏制资产外流并重新获得增长动力。
在郭儒博的领导下，瑞银建立起一套早期预警机制，它会及时标注出那些会将大额资金撤出瑞银的客户。瑞银还安排高管去打消客户对该公司的担忧，并与公司以往的那些客户取得联系。
自从上述两次危机开始以来，已经有1,500名银行家从瑞银跳槽，该行也一直在重新招兵买马，其结果是，今年春天瑞银的银行家跳槽率和客户流失率都降了下来。
银行家们说，瑞银受到了本次全球金融危机的重创，该行冲销了价值500亿美元的在美次级按揭贷款投资，其2008年录得净亏损213亿瑞士法郎，这令客户们感到惊恐。
一个曾在瑞银任银行家的人说，我的客户当时都很惊慌，他们对我说，如果你要离开瑞银，请告诉我，我也将和瑞银分手。
瑞银的发言人拒绝对此发表评论。
2008年末，即瑞士央行(Swiss National Bank)不得不出手救助瑞银后不久，这家银行将它的年度奖金减少了三分之二之多。其结果是，2009年第一季度，该行约5,000名银行家中的369人离职。
竞 争对手们一直在从瑞银的厄运中获益。瑞信从瑞银挖走了一批高级别银行家，巴克莱集团(Barclays PLC)则以它从瑞银挖来的银行家为班底组建了自己的亚洲团队。法国兴业银行(Societe Generale SA)旗下瑞士私人银行业务去年净增加的资产大约有三分之二来自瑞银。
2009年2月，瑞银将郭儒博请出了山，他曾在瑞信工作了四十年， 最后做到首席执行长的职位。郭儒博上任后开始着手解决那些导致瑞银面临协助避税指控的问题，并列出哪些银行家公司应予挽留，同时采取措施控制成本。他在瑞 银裁员数千人之际，却向某些私人银行家支付了两笔特别奖金，以换取他们承诺会至少在瑞银继续留任六个月。
瑞银还建立起一套早期预警机制，以便在客户开始减少投放在瑞银的资金时发出警报。接到警报后，瑞银的高管会出面劝说这些客户不要离开。在瑞士，瑞银将公司最重要的1,000名客户分给各高管去专人负责，这些高管需定期与自己分管的客户联络。
此外，曾经是瑞信资深交易员的郭儒博还亲自坐镇瑞银的投资委员会，督促分析师们拿出更犀利的市场预测报告，以供银行家们向富有的客户兜售。
瑞银的局面现在已经有了些许稳定迹象。今年2月，瑞银宣布它六个季度以来首次实现盈利，该公司的资产净流出速度今年春天已经放慢。瑞银已发起一轮招聘攻势，计划在亚洲增聘400名银行家。
Ten times over the past year, UBS AG Chief Executive Oswald Grubel has been called upon to speak personally with wealthy clients who were spooked by the Swiss bank's deep troubles and threatening to taking their millions elsewhere.
Mr. Grubel, a 66-year-old German who came out of retirement from rival Credit Suisse Group to revive UBS last year, talked each one of the clients through UBS's financial situation and sketched out his turnaround plan. All 10 ended up staying, according to Mr. Grubel.
Such hustling by a CEO is a sign of how aggressively UBS, long the world's largest private bank, is working to regain its stature. Badly damaged by twin crises -- an embarrassing U.S. tax-evasion investigation and soured bets on home mortgages -- UBS has suffered an outflow of 231 billion Swiss francs ($220 billion) from its wealth-management unit since January 2008, as clients and bankers defected. The private bank now has 1.7 trillion francs under management.
As UBS reports second-quarter earnings next week, investors will be looking for signs that the private bank is making progress. Mr. Grubel and other UBS executives warn that they are a long way from full recovery but say the bank has taken steps to stanch the outflows and regain momentum.
Under Mr. Grubel, UBS has set up an early-warning system to flag clients who make large withdrawals. It is deploying senior executives to soothe clients' concerns and reach out to departed clients.
After losing 1,500 bankers since the start of the crises, UBS has been recruiting once again. As a result, the defection of bankers and clients slowed this spring.
UBS was hit hard by the global financial crisis, writing down $50 billion in U.S. subprime-mortgage investments and reporting a 2008 net loss of 21.3 billion francs, frightening clients, bankers say.
'My clients were panicked,' says one former UBS banker. 'They were telling me, 'If you leave, tell me and I will follow you.' '
A UBS spokesman declined to comment.
In late 2008, soon after the Swiss National Bank had to bail out UBS, the bank cut annual bonuses by as much as two-thirds. As a result, in the first quarter of 2009, 369 of its roughly 5,000 bankers quit.
Competitors have benefited from UBS's travails. Credit Suisse has poached a slew of high-level UBS bankers and Barclays PLC built up its Asian teams by luring bankers from UBS. About two-thirds of the net new assets garnered by Societe Generale SA's Swiss private bank last year came from UBS.
In February 2009, UBS brought in Mr. Grubel, who worked for Credit Suisse for four decades before rising to the CEO spot. He began fixing the compliance problems that led to the tax charges, figuring out which bankers to keep, and containing costs. Even as he cut thousands of jobs throughout the bank, he paid two special bonuses to certain private bankers in exchange for a promise to stick around for at least six months.
The bank also set up an early-warning system to signal when a client begins to wind down his investments. In that case, senior management intervenes to try to keep the client from leaving. In Switzerland, the bank divvied up the top 1,000 clients and assigned senior executives to check in with them routinely.
Moreover, Mr. Grubel, a veteran trader at Credit Suisse, personally sits on UBS's investment committee, pushing analysts to come up with sharper market calls that bankers can pitch to wealthy clients.
There are now some signs of stability. In February, UBS reported its first profit in six quarters, and net outflows slowed this spring. It has mounted a hiring push, with plans to add 400 bankers in Asia.