ZURICH, May 6 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS on Tuesday it will pay a special dividend to investors who help it transfer into a holding company, a bid to win rebates on capital rules demanded by regulators following the financial crisis.
The Swiss bank is launching a swap of shares into the new company, which is meant to separate its branches more easily in case one runs into trouble without jeopardizing the remainder, a key element of too-big-to-fail laws.
The Zurich lender disclosed the plan, agreed with Swiss financial regulator FINMA, alongside a 7 percent rise in first-quarter net profit to 1.05 billion Swiss francs ($1.20 billion). This topped expectations in an analyst poll conducted by Reuters, which averaged 905 million francs.
($1 = 0.8778 Swiss Francs) (Reporting by Katharina Bart)