UBS returns to full-year profit

UBS has posted a net profit of 7.2bn Swiss francs ($7.5bn; £4.7bn) for 2010 - its first full-year profit since the financial crisis.

It compares with a loss of 2.7bn francs in 2009.

"While we made substantial progress in 2010, we are fully aware that we have to continue to improve our results," chief executive Oswald Gruebel said.

The Swiss bank also announced a 10% cut in its bonus pool to 4.3bn francs from 4.8bn francs the previous year.

The BBC's Europe business correspondent Nigel Cassidy said that if the bonus pool were to fall by much more there was a danger - from the bank's point of view - that some of their talented staff might leave.

It was a very difficult balancing act for management, he added.

UBS's annual profit follows three successive years of losses.

It last posted a full-year net profit - of 12.6bn francs - in 2006, before it became swept up in the US subprime crisis.