February, 27, 2010

The outflow of client money at Switzerland's UBS(UBS.N)(UBSN.VX) is a big concern for the bank as rebuilding client trust is taking time, UBS Chairman Kaspar Villiger said on Friday."The outflows are a big concern," said former Swiss finance minister Villiger, who became UBS chairman one year ago, in a recording of a TV panel discussion to be broadcast later on Friday on Swiss channel SF.

The amount of the outflows were not dramatic so far when put in perspective with the total wealth the bank managed, he said. "But the trend makes me think," he added.Clients withdrew 56 billion francs in the fourth quarter, up from 37 billion in the third quarter and confounding expectations that outflows would slow after UBS settled a bitter U.S. probe into help it offered rich Americans to dodge taxes.Customers drained 147 billion francs net from UBS in the whole of 2009, in stark contrast with the record 152 billion francs the wealth manager had attracted in 2006, although the bank still has a 2.2 trillion francs of invested assets.

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