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UBS board member says bank on the right path-press

Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:00am EST

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ZURICH, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX), one of the worst-hit European banks in the crisis, is on the recovery path, board member Ernesto Bertarelli told Swiss magazine Bilanz on Thursday.

"We have tried to take the right decisions early so that we could turn the corner," Bertarelli, a Swiss entrepreneur known for being the head of America's Cup holders Alinghi, said in an interview with Bilanz.

"Today we are on a good path to leave the crisis behind us."

UBS has made about $49 billion of writedowns due to risky investments in the U.S. subprime mortgage market and had to tap investors twice this year to strengthen its balance sheet before turning to the Swiss state for help in October.

UBS, whose reputation as icon of Swiss banking has been hurt at home, is also the target of a high-level U.S. tax probe that led to the indictment of the bank's top wealth management executive last week.

Its shares hit a fresh all-time low on Thursday and were down 9.8 percent at 10.88 Swiss francs at 1540 GMT.

(Writing by Lisa Jucca; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)



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