Afternoon:
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There were mixed results from the latest bank results today, after Standard Chartered announced plans to raise $1.6 billion (£946 million) to capitalise on the downturn, but Swiss bank UBS said it is “cautious” about its prospects, after heavy client withdrawals and US tax litigation caused it to post another big quarterly loss.
Standard Chartered, the British bank which earns most of its money from emerging markets, posted a 10% rise in pretax profit to a forecast-beating $2.84 billion (£1.68 billion), as it announced plans to raise cash by issuing new shares.
But the outlook was gloomier at UBS, which posted a net loss of 1.4 billion Swiss francs (£774 million), and felt the pinch after its wealth management arm saw asset levels drop by 39.4 billion francs.
The loss also contrasts with forecast-beating results at UBS's Swiss archrival Credit Suisse, as well as American bank Goldman Sachs, which cashed in on a market rebound while UBS was busy slashing costs and fighting the American tax case.
UBS's chief executive Oswald Gruebel and chairman Kaspar Villiger said: “Our outlook remain cautious, consistent with our view that economic recovery will be constrained by low credit creation and the structural weakness in consumers' and governments' balance sheet.”
