UBS buys Stabfund from SNB for $3.762 billion

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) has bought back the stabilization fund set up five years ago to bail out the bank during the financial crisis, for $3.762 billion, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) said on Friday.

UBS will pay the SNB $1 billion plus half of the remaining amount of the purchase price. The central bank said the repayment would have a favorable impact on its 2013 annual result.

In autumn 2008, the Swiss government, the Swiss financial markets watchdog and the SNB adopted measures to rescue UBS, the country's biggest bank, including taking on some $39 billion in illiquid assets by the SNB which have since turned profitable.

(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz and Caroline Copley)