The risk system were working, but no one on the trading floor was paying attention. This has been the not-very-secret common knowledge of enterprise-wide investment banking risk management, for years! 

Please don't let anyone say they are surprised. 

“Risk and operational systems did detect unauthorised or unexplained activity but this was not sufficiently investigated” – This must be very embarrassing for the risk management department.

Really how can anyone even with the smallest amount of training ignore a 2.3 billion loss. Incredible banana skin whoops our calculations were out by 2.3 billion but it isn’t even that, the dissipation light was flashing and no one noticed.  My goodness me this is moving deeply into the realm of malpractice and the risk team would need to have a heavy excuse to escape ridicule; such as the department has literally been intoxicated for the last six months.

There is of course another explanation (many I am sure), now here is the tricky bit, the risk department might have been part of the act – aiding and abetting.

It is such a huge blunder, one kind of feels that there might have been some kick back internally for the risk team to ignore this. Now if that is the case, then these people would fall guilty of the same crime rather than that of malpractice.

Okay let's see if any risk people leave UBS in the coming weeks or are prosecuted because they were asleep on watch.

I am afraid up and down the ranks of Investment Banks you will find equal casual blindness. I can tell you that after each of this mass breakdowns within every bank there will be a root and branch internal cleansing process where they will satisfy that they a good and clean. That is until the next time. There is a greater problem than systems or casual bankers to fat on bonuses to do their job. When will the culture be examined and dealt with and by who? Banks dont appear up to it