The takeover of the ailing bank Credit Suisse apparently did not harm the Swiss UBS. A legal dispute in the USA, however, requires a large provision.
The major Swiss bank UBS benefited from significantly higher customer inflows in the first quarter. From January to March, the major bank collected 28 billion US dollars (25.32 billion euros) in new money from particularly wealthy customers (Global Wealth Management). Of this, 7 billion were recorded in the last ten days of March, i.e. after the announcement of the takeover of the ailing bank Credit Suisse, as the bank further announced on Tuesday.
In the first quarter, however, UBS earned less than in the same period last year. Profits halved to $1.03 billion. The main reason is a high provision for a legal dispute in the USA. The bank increased provisions by $665 million for litigation related to its pre-crisis junk mortgage business. According to bank boss Sergio Ermotti, talks with the US Treasury Department are “well advanced”.
At the end of March, the largest Swiss bank managed a total of 4.16 trillion dollars in assets. At the end of December it was still $3.96 trillion.
Source: Stern
