UBS seen 'dire' client activity in recent weeks

UBS has seen "dire" client activity in recent weeks, Juerg Zeltner, the bank's wealth management head, was quoted as saying in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"It's no secret markets have not been cooperative this past few weeks -- as a bank, we're totally exposed to these swings. The [strong] Swiss franc is also taking its toll," Zeltner said in the interview.

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Zeltner expects clients to start trading again when the United States settles a political debate over its debt ceiling, the WSJ reported, while the euro-zone debt worries were also weighing on sentiment, the paper said.

Zeltner also said the bank would now start to raise prices for its services.

"We've emerged from a time where we were extremely defensive, our clients were losing money, we had no pricing power and our franchise was under considerable pressure. We don't have that anymore," Zeltner said.

"Now, our advisors are no longer acting from that position of weakness. They can confidently ask for the right price for the right services," he said.

Clients pulled billions of francs from UBS as it came close to collapse in the credit crisis and was hit by a US tax probe and attacks on Swiss bank secrecy by European neighbours.