The Age
12 Aug 2008
UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, reported a fourth straight quarterly loss on debt writedowns and the cost of settling a US probe into its sale of auction-rate securities.
The net loss was 358 million Swiss francs ($373 million) in the second quarter, compared with a profit of 5.55 billion francs a year earlier, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement today. Earnings compare with the 281 million-franc median loss estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The loss was cushioned by about 3.8 billion francs in tax credits.
Chief Executive Officer Marcel Rohner is under pressure to shrink the unprofitable investment bank and limit damage to UBS's wealth management business, the world's largest. Following a strategic review, UBS plans to give its three business divisions greater autonomy, backing away from an effort to integrate them after record losses at the securities unit led to net withdrawals from the private bank for the first time in almost eight years.
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