Record results in fixed income, rates and currencies helped investment banking profits grow by nearly a third at UBS, powering the bank to its second most profitable year since it was formed.

UBS had a net profit of Sfr6.4bn (€4.1bn) in 2003, up 81% from the Sfr3.6 it earned in 2002. The bank said that excluding significant financial events and goodwill, net profit went up by a third from 2002. In the fourth quarter UBS made a net profit of Sfr1.8bn against a loss of Sfr101m in the final three months of 2002.