World’s biggest banks expect difficult financial markets!

NEW YORK - November 4, 2008 - JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, three of the world's biggest banks, said they expect further pain from the global financial crisis.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, speaking to employees in Hong Kong yesterday, said the company faces “highly challenging conditions” next year. UBS of Zurich predicted today that “difficult conditions” will continue to weigh on fee income. RBS, based in Edinburgh, scrapped a profit goal for 2008.

Banks have reported $687 billion of credit losses and writedowns since the start of last year as the worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression battered credit markets. UBS, RBS and New York-based JPMorgan, the bank called upon to rescue Bear Stearns Cos., have all been forced to take state funds as governments seek to restore confidence in the financial system.

UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, said worsened financial market conditions this quarter “will continue to affect our clients' assets, and therefore our fee-earning businesses.” RBS CEO Stephen Hester said rising loan defaults and writedowns may lead to a full-year loss at Britain's second-largest bank.

“The global situation does not look good,” said Peter Hahn, a fellow at London's Cass Business School and a former managing director at Citigroup Inc. “UBS is retrenching, RBS is unlikely to be in all of the same businesses going forward and JPMorgan has so far used the financial crisis as an opportunity to expand. We are seeing the financial excess being squeezed out of the financial services sector.”