UBS says no plans to raise equity for Basel

UBS, Europe's largest wealth manager by assets, said today it did not plan to raise equity to meet Basel III capital requirements…

UBS, Europe's largest wealth manager by assets, said today it did not plan to raise equity to meet Basel III capital requirements and does not expect to pay dividends for some time.

In slides prepared for a presentation, UBS said it planned to take mitigating steps which should significantly reduce its risk-weighted assets (RWA) under the new rules, which it expected to meet by 2013.

UBS said it had already made substantial progress in reducing risk by decreasing leverage, improving risk management and governance and returning to profitability.

The bank added it is well positioned relative to its peers to meet the challenges of Basel III.

UBS needed a government bailout during the credit crisis but had built its Tier 1 capital ratio to a robust 16.4 per cent by the end of the first half of 2010 in preparation for stricter capital requirements.

The heads of main Swiss rival Credit Suisse and top British and French banks Barclays, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale said the previous day they could meet tighter capital rules without a rights issue by using their own profits.

The main yardstick for Basel rules set to come into force by 2019 is a Tier 1 capital ratio of 7 per cent.

UBS said that when applying Basel III standards, its RWA would have been around 400 billion Swiss francs (€300.1 billion) at the end of June, compared to 205 billion francs under Basel II.

Mitigation efforts would reduce RWA to 300 billion francs, he said, adding that UBS expected to satisfy the required core capital ratios through retained earnings by 2013.

The new capital requirements are key to Basel III standards aimed at reducing the possibility and severity of future financial crises and making the banking system more stable through moderated risk taking and better loss absorption.

UBS chief financial officer John Cryan is due to hold the presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch financials conference.

UBS, Switzerland's largest bank by market value, has accepted government backing as it struggles to rebuild its brand after massive investments into risky US assets forced it to make more writedowns than any other European bank.

Reuters