Swiss bank UBS says it does not expect to pay dividends for some time as it seeks to preserve capital to meet new requirements of the Bank for International Settlements.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said it will require lenders to have common equity capital equal to at least 4.5 per cent of assets and will introduce an additional 2.5 per cent buffer.

Europe’s largest wealth manager by assets said on Thursday it had no plans to raise capital but would take steps to reduce its risk-weighted assets under the new rules, which it expected to meet by 2013.

UBS said it had already made substantial progress in reducing risk, adding that it was well positioned to meet the challenges of the so-called Basel III, the new framework for global capital requirements.

The new capital requirements are key to Basel III standards aimed at reducing the possibility and security of future financial crises and making the banking system more stable.

UBS, which had to be bailed out by the Swiss government in 2008, announced in February 2009, that it had lost nearly SFr20 billion ($20.53 billion) in 2008, the biggest single-year loss of any company in Swiss history.

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