Swiss banking giant UBS has reported a loss of 564 million Swiss francs for the third quarter of this year, dragged by substantial accounting charges of 2.15 billion Swiss francs.
UBS had a net loss of 283 million Swiss francs in the third quarter of previous year.
However sequentially, the bank has witnessed some improvement as it had a net loss of 1.4 billion Swiss francs in the second quarter of this year.
"UBS reports a third quarter net loss attributable to UBS shareholders of 564 million Swiss francs due to three substantial accounting charges," the bank said in a statement.
Excluding the accounting charges, underlying pre-tax profitability increased to 1.55 billion Swiss francs. This was mainly due to better results in the investment bank's fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) business.
The company's underlying pre-tax profitability has increased in the quarter under review and expects the momentum to continue projecting a bullish guidance for next quarter.
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"UBS expects to see further progress in restoring the underlying profitability of the business in future quarters, particularly in 2010. However, this progress will depend on market and other factors," the banking major said.
Total operating income increased to 5.76 billion Swiss francs in the third quarter from 5.54 billion Swiss francs in the year-ago period.
In the investment bank segment, the company's pre-tax loss narrowed to 1.37 billion Swiss francs in the third quarter ended September 30, 2009, compared with 1.84 billion Swiss francs in the same period last year.
FICC business, which saw its first quarter of net positive revenues in nine quarters, showed progress in risk reduction and the effect of key hires in its credit business. Equities and investment banking recorded lower revenues.
Moreover, the net new money outflows were 16.7 billion Swiss francs for Wealth Management & Swiss Bank and 10 billion Swiss francs for global asset management.
During the quarter, the company's workforce declined by 2,783 employees to 69,023 at the end of September quarter.