Accounting principles

The UBS Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). As a US listed company, we also provide a description in Note 42 to the Financial Statements of the significant differences which would arise were our accounts to be presented under the United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), and a detailed reconciliation of equity attributable to shareholders under IFRS and net profit to US GAAP.

Except where clearly identified, all of UBS's financial information presented in this document is presented on a consolidated basis under IFRS.

Pages 215 to 228 contain the financial statements for the UBS AG Parent Bank – the Swiss company, including branches worldwide, which owns all the UBS companies, directly or indirectly. The Parent Bank's financial statements are prepared in order to meet Swiss regulatory requirements and in compliance with Swiss Banking Law. Except in those pages, or where otherwise explicitly stated, all references to "UBS" refer to the UBS Group and not to the Parent Bank.

All references to 2006, 2005 and 2004 refer to the UBS Group and the Parent Bank's fiscal years ended 31 December 2006, 2005 and 2004. The Financial Statements for the UBS Group and the Parent Bank have been audited by Ernst & Young Ltd.

An explanation of the critical accounting policies applied in the preparation of our financial statements is provided below. The basis of our accounting is given in Note 1 to the Financial Statements.

Standards for management accounting

Our management reporting systems and policies determine the revenues and expenses directly attributable to each business unit. The presentation of the business segments ­reflects UBS's organizational structure and management ­responsibilities. Internal charges and transfer pricing adjustments are reflected in the performance of each business unit.

Inter-business unit revenues and expenses. Revenue-­sharing agreements are used to allocate external customer revenues to business units on a reasonable basis. Inter-business unit charges are reported in the line "Services to / from other Business Units" for both Business Units concerned. Transactions between Business Units are conducted at internally agreed transfer prices or at arm's length. Corporate Center expenses are allocated to the operating Business Units to the extent appropriate.

Net interest income is allocated to the Business Units based on their balance sheet positions. Assets and liabilities of the financial businesses are funded through and invested with the central treasury departments, with the net margin reflected in the results of each Business Unit. To complete the allocation, the financial businesses are credited with a risk-free return on their regulatory capital requirements adding goodwill and excess intangible assets (see below).

Commissions are credited to the Business Unit with the corresponding customer relationship, with revenue-sharing agreements for the allocation of customer revenues where several business units are involved in value creation.

For internal management reporting purposes and in the results discussion, we measure credit loss using an expected loss concept. Expected credit loss reflects the average annual costs that are expected to arise from positions in the current portfolio that become impaired. The adjusted ­expected credit loss reported for each Business Group is the expected credit loss on its portfolio plus the difference between credit loss expense and expected credit loss, amortized over a three-year period (shown as ‘deferral' in the ­table). The difference between the sum of these adjusted expected credit loss figures, which are charged to the Business Groups or Units, and the credit loss expense recorded at Group level for financial reporting purposes is reported in Corporate Center. The table on the next page shows the adjusted expected credit loss charged to the Business Groups.

Regulatory capital requirements for the Business Units are defined as 10% of BIS risk-weighted assets. To measure capital consumption of the Business Units, we adjust regulatory capital for the goodwill and excess intangible assets allo­cated. Return on allocated regulatory capital is a key performance indicator for the Investment Bank and the Business Banking Switzerland unit.

The levels of personnel are expressed in terms of full-time equivalents (FTE) and measured as a percentage of the ­standard hours normally worked by permanent full-time staff. The FTE level cannot exceed 1.0 for any individual. Personnel includes all staff and trainees other than contractors.