UBS Wants to Woo Back Lost Clients

Swiss bank UBS AG, which was bailed out by the government during the financial crisis, is launching an advertising campaign to woo back clients after posting strong results earlier this year.

Print advertisements will show the footprint of astronaut Neil Armstrong and other motifs and will begin running across Europe and Asia in late August, according to preview materials distributed by the bank.

An advert for UBS in Switzerland shows a black-and-white photo of architect Le Corbusier holding his head with the captions: "Because we've drawn a clear line" and "We want to deal with our past and look with confidence into the future".

UBS is trying to rebuild its once powerful brand after massive investments in risky U.S. assets forced it to make more writedowns than any other European bank. Its troubles also prompted clients to withdraw their funds.

But thanks to strong equities and currency revenues, UBS posted forecast-beating second-quarter earnings, while client money withdrawals fell to their lowest level since early 2008.

The bank's last major ad campaign was about two years ago, a spokeswoman said. The adverts will also appear in the United States, where UBS stood accused of having helped wealthy Americans dodge taxes.

In order to avert a U.S. court case, Switzerland and UBS had to promise in August 2009 they would disclose bank information about 4,450 U.S. holders of UBS accounts who were suspected of tax evasion.

The Swiss-U.S. deal over UBS broke Swiss law and Berne had to design a legal patch to bypass its own system that struggled to win Swiss parliament approval.