UBS forced to buy back notes
A Wall Street arbitration panel ordered UBS to pay a retired couple $529,688 for selling them “structured notes” backed by Lehman Brothers that plunged in value when the investment bank collapsed in 2008. A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel yesterday ruled that UBS must buy back the notes from the couple, Steven and Ellen Edelson. Some of these Lehman notes were called “principal protected,” a label that critics complain implied that investors could not lose money. The Swiss bank’s US brokerage arm sold $1bn of Lehman-backed notes, with these sales continuing well into 2008. Lehman went bankrupt in September 2008.