Swiss bank UBS has announced its first loss in five years and have warned of job losses, although details are not forthcoming.
UBS took charges of 4.4 billion Swiss francs on exposures linked to US sub-prime mortgages and has confirmed that it will be difficult to retain all of its employees.
Prior to this announcement, UBS had to refute experts’ claims that it faced a massive fourth-quarter writedown to the total of $8 billion. Analysts predicted this figure despite a spokesman telling sources that the bank would adhere to its guidance of turning a group profit.
“UBS does not expect writedowns greater than those implied in its outlook which means writedown numbers like $8 billion are not expected,” says a spokesman.