It's true - reputation is bank's most important asset. They tend not to last when confidence in them goes down the pan. But UBS hasn't lost all the trust of all of it's clients by any means. There isn't, nor has there been, a run on the bank. It's a very serious problem for them for sure, (they admit it themselves), but it's not life threatening yet.

Interesting that withdrawals from Swiss clients in the quarter was negligible, so it seems, for now at least, this is cross border issue. But therein lies the challenge. Returning to profitability and stronger financial health is a major step towards rebuilding client confidence but it won't be enough to reverse the tide. Uncertainty over banking secrecy, tax disputes with the US, italy, Germany et al will continue to haunt them until they're put to bed. But resolving these are not something UBS has control over. And there are signs that these are beginning to affect the wider Swiss Private banking industry as well.

Where UBS management does have control, they're doing all the right things. In fact they acted quickly for the get go when the crisis broke - raising capital, offloading toxic risk positions etc. My read is that trust in UBS management is beginning to recover - that's a critical development for them.

For the rest, there's still a long haul ahead to stop international client outflows. I don't think anyone, least of all UBS's management, think otherwise.