Shares of UBS (UBS), Switzerland’s largest bank, are rising in European trading overnight after the bank held an Extraordinary General Meeting in which it told investors that it “expects to report a small profit for the third quarter, based on preliminary estimates.” This will be the first quarterly profit in over a year for UBS (UBS). UBS (UBS) also expects that “2009 will be an overall profitable year.”

The bank also reported that is has reduced its exposure to mortgage backed securities. These securities are weighing down the balance sheets of banks and other financial companies to the point where the U.S. is now working on passing a bill into law that will enable the government to spend upwards of $700 billion to buy these assets from the financial companies to help them weather the current credit crisis.

UBS will report its third quarter 2008 earnings on November 4th, 2008.