Swiss banking giant UBS today posted a profit of 7.2 billion Swiss francs for 2010, raking in an annual profit for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2008.
The banking entity, hit by the meltdown, had a whopping loss of 2.7 billion in 2009.
"While we made substantial progress in 2010, we are fully aware that we have to continue to improve our results," UBS Group CEO Oswald J Grübel said in a statement.
Meanwhile, UBS has slashed bonus pool (for employees) by 10% to 4.3 billion Swiss francs in 2010.
For the three months ended December 2010, UBS recorded a profit of 1.29 billion Swiss francs, slightly higher than 1.21 billion Swiss francs in the year-ago period.
The results include a credit charge of 509 million Swiss francs, net credit loss expenses of CHF 164 million Swiss francs and a tax credit of 149 million Swiss francs.
In the last quarter of 2009, the firm's bottomline was boosted by a tax credit of 825 million Swiss francs.
According to the company, its wealth management business saw a pre-tax profit of 488 million Swiss francs, slightly lower than 492 million Swiss francs in the comparable period.
"Net inflows of new money were very small during the fourth quarter compared with 1 billion Swiss francs in the prior quarter. We saw inflows in the Asia Pacific region, in emerging markets and globally from ultra high net worth clients," it said.
