UBS posts small drop in Q3 profit

SWISS bank UBS overcame a 1.8 billion Swiss franc (€11.47bn) rogue trading loss to post a smaller than forecast fall in third-quarter net profit yesterday, as its core wealth management business performed well.

Managing money for rich clients held up well, with strong inflows to the bank’s Americas unit, despite tough economic conditions and the bad publicity of the trading scandal, made public two weeks before the quarter ended.

Although net profit for the third quarter fell by 39% to 1.018bn francs at UBS, it beat forecasts for 276 million, after big one-off items flagged earlier this month had a more positive impact than expected. Adjusted for one-off items, pre-tax profit was 588m francs.