Swiss banking giant UBS, currently involved in US legal cases and recovering from massive debt write-downs, said its results for the second quarter, ended 30 June, are likely to be at or slightly below break-even point.

The results are due to be released on 12 August.

“The results reflect positive contributions from global wealth management and business banking and from global asset management, offset by a loss in the investment bank,” UBS said in a statement.

It said that further market deterioration led to write-downs and losses on previously disclosed investment bank risk positions, in particular credit valuation adjustments on monoline insurance exposures.

Write-downs were mitigated by continued exposure reductions and by hedge benefits. In connection with the losses to date, the second quarter results include a tax credit of approximately SFr3 billion.

UBS said that growth of group net new money was negative. This was most pronounced in April but improved in May and June, in particular for global wealth management and business banking.

At the end of the quarter, UBS expects its Tier 1 capital ratio - a key measure of a bank’s financial strength - to be about 11.5 per cent, and there was no need to raise new equity.

US bank Citi said UBS may post $6.9 billion of additional write-downs and seek to raise more capital, in a note quoted by Bloomberg.

UBS is facing a US probe into whether the Zurich-listed bank helped wealthy customers evade US taxes. A federal judge this week granted a request from prosecutors to let the Internal Revenue Service issue a summons to UBS for information about clients with secret accounts at the bank.

To date, UBS has recorded a total of about $37 billion in debt write-downs linked to the credit crunch.