(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-01 23:15

However, he said, UBS wants to avoid selling at "severely distressed levels."

"With these measures we have created the basis to weather one of the most difficult periods in the history of the industry," Rohner said.

The measures show the bank continues to trim risky assets. The bank said its exposure to US subprime mortgage related positions declined to approximately $15 billion from $27.6 billion on Dec. 31.

The exposure to Alt-A positions - which are less risky than subprime loans - was reduced to $16 billion (10.1 billion euros) from $26.6 billion, it said.

The efforts at minimizing exposure will be accompanied by an undisclosed number of job cuts and a further tightening of risk.

The measures mean that UBS is now a restructuring stock, analysts at JP Morgan wrote in a note to investors.

"We conclude UBS is aiming to put a line below its risk-exposure problem and refocus on operational business," JP Morgan's Kian Abouhossein said.

But Octavio Marenzi, head of financial consultancy Celent, said the UBS disclosures were "a clear indication that we are not out of the woods yet in terms of the credit crisis."

"Indeed, the storm clouds are gathering ever more rapidly over the banking industry and, in particular, the US banking industry, where most of UBS's losses originated from," Marenzi said.

He predicted the US banking industry is set to see its first contraction in overall revenues in more than forty years. "This will inevitably lead to staff reductions, and we expect to see the US banking industry shed about 200,000 jobs in the coming 12 to 18 months," Marenzi said.

Earlier this year UBS posted a 12.45-billion franc loss for the fourth quarter of 2007, after writing down 15.6 billion francs tied to US subprime mortgages, and said it expected another difficult year ahead.

The bank posted a net loss of 4.38 billion francs for 2007, its first annual loss.

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