Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, on Friday reported a €450 million boost to its litigation provisions after a French court slapped it with a €4.5 billion penalty last month. The appeals process is expected to take years, and could see the bank and prosecutors go through at least two more verdicts. While UBS did not specify by how much it had increased its provisions for France, group-wide litigation provisions rose to $2.83 billion from the $2.45 billion initially reported for end-2018. The added provisions pushed down 2018 net profit to $4.5 billion from the $4.9 billion reported in January. UBS had pushed back the release date of its annual report in order to assess the French court ruling’s impact on its finances and determine whether it needed to bulk up litigation provisions.

Source: The Irish Times March 15, 2019 09:56 UTC