Trouble At UBS For Obama’s Favorite Banker?

Office politics may be creating a somewhat awkward work environment for President Obama’s favorite banker, who according to a report in today’s The New York Times, is being “muzzled” by his employer, UBS.

Robert Wolf, chairman of UBS in the Americas, became an inside source on Wall Street for then-Sen. Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. “We met for a little dinner, just him and I, and you know, I was hook, line and sinker,” Wolf told FRONTLINE in the film Money, Power & Wall Street.

Wolf went on to become an informal adviser to Obama, as well as a top fundraiser and an occasional golfing companion. Thanks in part to their close relationship, he also emerged as the public face of UBS in the U.S. Yet following a series of recent setbacks at the firm, several of Wolf’s colleagues have been jockeying for a larger role at the bank, according to The Times, and that has led the bank’s press office to more tightly monitor his press appearances.

“The contretemps within UBS may be more about office politics than national politics,” The Times reported, with one bank official telling the paper that “This stuff is right out of the movie ‘Mean Girls’ but it involves grown men.”

With Wolf’s ties to the president once again in the spotlight, here is a look back at how their relationship began:

To hear more from Wolf on the president and his relationship with Wall Street, watch his extended video interview.