UBS: reasons to be fearful

UBS’s spoonful of sugar hasn’t made its bitter subprime pill easy to swallow. The Swiss bank has found some sweet spots to take the edge off its SFr16bn in fourth quarter writedowns. But after giving its investors such a bruising of late, it hasn’t offered nearly enough to get them back onside. Sure, asset management raised profits by a solid 18%, a turnaround from the previous three quarters. But that’s a limited reassurance. If an outflow of SFr16bn in institutional assets spreads to other cu...