The BBC have conducted an exclusive interview with Kweku Adoboli 1 August
The 36-year old left prison a year ago after serving almost half of his 7 year jail sentence and during his trial at Southwark Crown Court he'd told the jury that UBS staff were encouraged to take risks until they got "a slap on the back of the wrist" by senior managers.
Adoboli, who was arrested on 15 September 2011, worked in UBS's global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities. He had joined the bank in 2003 and became a trader in 2006.
The court was told that at one point he stood to lose the bank £7.5bn ($12bn).
Now Adoboli has given his first broadcast interview to the BBC where he says the same culture still prevails and a loss of his UK record of £1.4bln could happen again.
Currently speaking for free at compliance events ( poacher turned gamekeeper and some!) Adoboli says:
"I think the young people I've spoken to, former colleagues I have spoken to, are still struggling with the same issues, the same conflicts, the same pressures to achieve no matter what.
"And this goes back to the structure of the industry. People are required to take risk to generate profit, because yields in the industry are consistently compressed.
"And if investment banks continue to chase the same level of profitability as they have in the past, the only way to generate those profits is to take more risk.
"But from a politics angle, the desire is to limit that risk taking, to limit the profitability, but you have these conflicted goals."And where the conflict comes is where people fall into this grey zone, and so I think it can absolutely happen again.
"Especially as we go into what could be the next phase of the great financial crisis over the next 12 to 24 months."
More from the Beeb including the videoed interview here
Adoboli was not the first to make use of a lack of discipline/regulation/moderation ( I got my first break years ago at a US bank after one of the traders was sacked for "pushing out" dodgy Spot deals to sometime in the future ) and he will not be the last.
From my own experience, long since behind me, certain practices/tricks were still being used by those of low moral fibre. Fortunately my parents and totally brilliant mentors taught me better than that. Banks did indeed encourage "a profit at all cost attitude" but for me and those like me it just meant being an aggressive, pro-active, trader not an improper one.
Let's face it though, such stories are not just confined to financial markets. Those who stoop low enough to deceive are in every area of our lives and we should have no sympathy/tolerance for any of them.
Record rogue trader Adoboli says it could all happen again