UBS, the Swiss bank, which has just settled a long legal battle with US tax officials over bank secrecy, said that it had been pushed into a fourth successive quarter of losses by high accounting charges as it restructured during the credit crunch.

Its SwFr564 million (£335 million) third-quarter loss was higher than consensus forecasts and compared to a SwFr283 million profit a year ago as it took three big one-off accounting charges, including a big charge for the raised market valuation of its debt liabilities.

The bank also revealed that fund outflows from its Wealth Management Americas arm had accelerated to SwFr9.9 billion in the quarter, from SwFr5.8 billion the previous quarter, hit by the long tax dispute with the US authorities, who claimed that the bank was helping US citizens to hide assets from the taxman. Overall client outflows rose slightly to SwFr16.7 billion, from SwFr16.5 billion in the previous quarter. UBS has agreed to provide details of some 4,450 accounts to tax authorities.

Oswald Grubel, the chief executive, said that: "We do not expect an immediate recovery in client net new money flows, and the impact of low interest rates continues to hold back revenues."

However, Mr Grubel went on to emphasise that pre-tax operating profit excluding charges nearly doubled to SwFr1.6 billion, signalling that the crisis-hit bank was gradually on the mend.

“UBS expects to see further progress in restoring the underlying profitability of the business in future quarters, particularly in 2010,” he said.

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