Is the party over?

"UBS Group AG fired a senior investment banker because he allegedly failed to apprise his managers of details of a leveraged-buyout loan, highlighting the pressure Wall Street firms are under to keep a lid on risk in the lucrative business.

"The Swiss bank in December dismissed James Boland, who ran its leveraged-finance group in the Americas, and a lieutenant. Their alleged offense: not informing superiors and the bank's compliance officials that they had reclassified a bond the firm was underwriting as a loan, according to people familiar with the matter...

"UBS had planned to finance the deal with a bond, the people said. But after officials at the Swiss bank realized they couldn&™t provide enough disclosure for such a deal to pass legal muster, they switched it to a loan, which carries less-stringent disclosure requirements. Unlike bonds, however, loans are subject to the guidelines regulators put in place as part of broader efforts to limit excessive risk taking in the wake of the financial crisis.

"There is no sign that the loan ran afoul of government guidelines. Even though the loan was successfully syndicated to investors, UBS temporarily held on to a piece of it, and that is what caused the guidelines to come into play, one of the people said."

—The Wall Street Journal