UBS’s head of equities has quit the Swiss bank, dealing a setback to the firm as it tries to rebuild its investment banking unit, the Financial Times reports, citing an internal memo.

Daniel Coleman, who has been with the bank since joining as a graduate trainee in 1986, steps down with immediate effect. However he will remain as a senior adviser for the “next few months” before taking up “a new challenge” in the industry, the memo reportedly said.

His responsibilities pass to Neal Shear, the bank’s global head of securities, the publication reports.

A former Morgan Stanley banker, Shear joined UBS this January, when it created the global securities role as part of a reshuffle designed to bring its equities and fixed income, currencies and commodities departments closer together.

UBS aggressively restructured many of its business areas last year, putting new leadership in place and reducing its group-wide headcount by 3,790 in the fourth quarter alone.

These changes meant that, after troubles stemming from the credit crisis, UBS as a whole managed to report a net profit attributable to shareholders of SFr1.205 billion (around $1.1 billion) in the final quarter, compared with a net loss of SFr564 million in the three months to the end of September last year. The investment bank reported a pre-tax profit of SFr297 million for the fourth quarter.