UBS share price falls 8 per cent after Swiss bank reports disappointing fourth-quarter results
Shares in UBS fell 8 per cent this morning after the Swiss banking giant reported that investors had pulled billions of dollars in assets out of its flagship wealth management business in the fourth quarter of last year.
The Zurich-based bank said that while the group's overall profits had increased, beating analyst expectations, the wealth management business recorded a 27 percent fall in adjusted pretax profits, after 3.4bn SFr (£2.3bn) had flowed out of the business in the last three months of 2015.
The poor performance in the wealth management arm overshadowed UBS's best annual results since 2010, which allowed the bank to pay a higher-than-expected dividend.
"The last quarter of 2015 was the most challenging we’ve experienced in several years," UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti told analysts this morning.