Top Swiss bank hit by sub-prime crisis

Swiss banking giant UBS today announced a further $19bn US (€12.2bn) of writedowns related to the US sub-prime crisis.

The hit for the first quarter this year comes on top of the $18.5bn US (€11.8bn) written off by the bank during 2007 from US real estate-related assets.

It makes UBS by far Europe’s worst-hit bank by the collapse in sub-prime lending across the Atlantic. The multi-billion dollar writedowns also appeared to have claimed the bank’s chairman, with Marcel Ospel announcing he would not be standing for re-election later this month.