UBS agrees to buy back securities

Swiss banking giant UBS agreed to buy back nearly $20 billion in auction-rate securities from investors, a day after Citigroup Inc. reached a similar settlement with regulators for $7 billion as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the collapse of the market for the bond-like investments.

UBS will repurchase all $18.6 billion of the securities it sold and pay a fine of $150 million as part of an investigation led by New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo into whether banks misled customers about the safety of the securities.