UBS Group AG, Switzerland’s largest bank, faces another potentially costly legal battle as the U.S. Department of Justice draws up civil charges over the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, Reuters reported. UBS said yesterday that it expected to be sued by the Justice Department as early as today. The bank said that the claims were not supported by the facts or the law and it would contest any complaint vigorously. Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank said that it was unclear how long the U.S. legal case might last and that it was hard to estimate what size fine UBS might face. The analysts said that they thought more than half of the 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.20 billion) UBS has set aside for non-core legal risks was dedicated to the U.S. case. UBS said in its statement yesterday that it expected the DOJ to seek unspecified monetary penalties stemming from mortgage securities which date back to 2006 and 2007.
