UBS announces steep net profit fall

Swiss bank UBS said its net profit fell by almost half during the second quarter.

The Zurich-based bank said net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 1.02 billion Swiss francs ($1.2bn) compared with two billion francs in the April-June period of 2010.

Chief executive Oswald Gruebel said today that returns had declined across the banking sector in the past 12 months due to increased capital requirements imposed on the industry.

Mr Gruebel said UBS will not achieve the pretax profit target it set for itself in 2009.