Swiss bank UBS today underlined the ongoing scale of the financial crisis by warning that its earnings will continue to be squeezed in the last three months of this year.

Conceding that markets remain "parlous," John Cryan, chief financial officer, told analysts UBS could be hit by at least Sfr6bn (£3.2bn) losses, including Sfr4bn related to its recent bail-out by the Swiss national bank. Restructuring charges would also depress profits.

Confirming it made a net profit of Sfr296m in the third quarter, its first for a year, UBS said it had suffered record levels of outflows - Sfr49.3bn - from its wealth management businesses.

Its well-heeled customers, partly out of fear of the Swiss bank's damaged reputation, fled in huge numbers after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September.

UBS's asset management also saw net outflow of Sfr34.4bn as panic gripped markets, bringing the total quarterly outflow to Sfr83.6bn. An ultra-cautious Cryan said there were "encouraging" signs of new inflows since the central bank took over most of UBS's toxic assets in mid-October. "But I don't want to be misleading," he hastily added.

Cryan said the outflows had been caused by clients selling assets to pay down debts and spreading others around several banks but also by "a UBS-related impact." He added: "We have taken action, draconian action, to deal with that."

Switzerland's biggest bank said it expects the conditions seen in early October to continue to affect clients' assets - and therefore its fees. It added that accounting effects due in the current quarter could hit earnings hard.

UBS, which today said it had marked down a further $4.4bn of largely US mortgage-backed assets, turned a profit in the third quarter because of credit and tax gains of more than Sfr3bn. But this could be reversed in the current quarter.

The bank is being rescued by the Swiss authorities, with the central bank, the SNB, taking on the bulk of $60bn of high-risk assets transferred to a special purpose vehicle and the government injecting Sfr6bn of capital. The effect will be to raise UBS's Tier 1 capital ratio to a healthy 11.9% if shareholders approve the emergency measures.

UBS indicated that it had cut a further 1,900 staff, with its operating expenses down 26% in the quarter to Sfr6bn. Further cuts are expected.

Overnight the bank suffered further collateral damage to its tarnished reputation when a former senior executive in equity research in New York, Mitchel Guttenberg, pleaded guiltyto insider trading and was jailed for six-and-a-half years. UBS is also embroiled in a tax-avoidance scandal in the US.