Swiss bank UBS: 3Q net jumps 71 percent behind tax benefit

We are executing the measures already announced to mitigate these effects as we progress towards our targeted return on tangible equity in the short to medium term.

When looking the charts for UBS AG, the stock has been in a strong downtrend ever since the news of the scandal broke.

Company chief Sergio Ermotti and chairman Axel Weber called the bank’s performance “solid” even though “the macroeconomic backdrop for the quarter was very challenging”, because of widespread market volatility and dwindling activity in Asia. That in turn has occasionally helped to boost the bank’s profit.

UBS also raised its short to medium-term expectations for its cost/income ratio to 65-75 percent from 60-70 percent.

UBS’s shares fell 5.6pc on Tuesday. The European banking sector index was down 1.4 percent.

UBS said net profit in the September quarter rose to almost 2.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.13 billion) from 762 million francs ($770.28 million) in the same quarter previous year, helped largely by a one-time tax gain.

For the third quarter, UBS said its net tax benefit was 1.3 billion francs.

Meanwhile, UBS reshuffled its senior management.

Adjusted profit before tax was 1.0 billion francs for the quarter. Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse said last month they expect risk-weighted assets to increase as regulators apply more charges and change the way risk is calculated.

On top of the results, UBS said its finance chief would shift roles in a raft of top management changes.

Robert J. McCann, the current president of Wealth Management Americas, is to step down from the executive board and take over as the chairman of UBS America. Gardner was the CFO of the wealth management division.

The bank added that it had received inquiries from authorities concerning accounts related to the world’s governing body for soccer, FIFA, along with other sport associations, persons and organizations, and that UBS was co-operating with the investigations, Reuters reported.