Shares in UBS dived nearly 8% to their lowest in more than four years this morning after the Swiss bank declined to say when it would return to profitability and reported a Sfr4.4bn (€2.7bn) net loss for last year, in line with its predictions last month.

However, UBS, whose group chief executive Marcel Rohner described last year as “one of the most difficult in our history”, did not say today whether it expects to return to profit this year, instead saying it expects this to be “another difficult year”.