The US brokerage business of UBS has stopped selling exchange-traded funds that use leverage, saying the investments are harmful to long-term investing, media reports said.

UBS Wealth Management Americas suspended the sales of leveraged and "inverse" ETFs, effective immediately, saying "the short-term nature of these securities," especially in volatile markets, is "generally inconsistent" with UBS's emphasis on long-term investing.

ETFs, which track market indices such as the FTSE 100, can use leverage to amplify the daily returns of a particular index; an inverse ETF moves in the opposite direction to an index, so that an investor, for example, can make money when markets drop.

Reports said UBS’s suspension of such products happened after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a brokerage regulator, last month called such ETFs "typically not suitable" for retail investors who plan to hold them for more than one day.