Mumbai: Swiss banking giant UBS, hit hard by the financial market crisis, is planning to lay off around 1,900 employees at its investment banking, equities and fixed-income units, agency reports said.

This would affect about 10 per cent of the total investment banking staff. Support staff jobs will also go, sources close to the development said.

The European banking major, which amassed write-downs and credit losses of $44.2 billion since the beginning of the US credit crisis last year, is likely to be announce the latest job cuts at its shareholder meeting on Thursday.

UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, is scaling back its investment banking unit, which it plans to separate from wealth and asset management after rich clients withdrew funds for the first time in almost eight years.

UBS, a leading global wealth manager, a leading global investment banking and securities firm and one of the largest global asset managers, has already eliminated 7,000 jobs since the beginning of the credit crisis.

UBS employs more than 80,000 people around the world.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc shed 750 jobs at its European fixed-income and personal investment management unit last week while HSBC Holdings Plc said it was laying off 1,100 in its global banking and markets division worldwide.

The latest cuts announced by Zurich- based UBS would bring the total number of jobs eliminated at banks worldwide since July 2007 to more than 131,700.