Swiss bank UBS has reported faster-than-expected progress in overhauling its investment bank but its flagship wealth-management unit performed disappointingly, weighed down in Europe where Switzerland is under fire for helping tax cheats.

UBS announced a 1.89 billion Swiss francs (€1.54 billion) net loss for the fourth quarter yesterday following a big fine for rigging benchmark interest rates, although this was less than the SFr2.078 billion analysts had expected on average.

Switzerland’s biggest bank also said it was cutting overall bonus payments to its staff, with the maximum individual payout halved to SFr1 million.

UBS announced plans in October to fire 10,000 staff as it returns to private banking and ditches much of the trading business that lost $50 billion in the financial crisis and prompted the rate-rigging fine. – (Reuters)