It wasn't just UBS making the news Tuesday. On the day that the Swiss bank announced a $12bn first-quarter loss after some $19bn of asset write-downs, other firms too were hitting the headlines.

Bloomberg reports that Deutsche Bank has come out and said that it will write-down $3.9bn in the first-quarter, after admitting that 'conditions have become significantly more challenging during the last few weeks'. The write-downs relate to leverage and other loan commitments, commercial real estate and residential mortgage-backed securities (mostly Alt-A).

And Lehman Brothers has confirmed that it is to raise at least $3bn to reassure investors in the wake of recent concerns over the firm's liquidity position. The firm said that it really has no need to raise additional capital, but felt that it should do so in order to allay market misconceptions. Lehman's stock is down around 43% this year, much of which is down to short-sellers.

Punk Ziegel analyst Richard Bove has now cut his earnings target on the firm, yet maintains his 'buy' rating. He said in a note this week that 'Lehman remains under significant stress as investors question its long-term viability. The short position on the stock is currently 47m shares (or 8.4% of the outstanding). The company's balance sheet continues to raise concerns'.

Bloomberg reports that Goldman analyst William Tanona has downgraded Citi and Merrill Lynch's first-quarter earnings estimates, saying that the firms may post CDO-related write-downs of $12bn and $2bn respectively.

The Baltimore Sun reports that US fund manager Legg Mason has said that it will take an after-tax charge of $195m this quarter for the cost of shoring up money markets funds containing mortgage-backed securities. This takes the total losses to date to $279m.

The Financial Times reports that hedge funds are having a bad start to the year after March 'turned into one of the ugliest months for popular strategies and several funds imploded'. The newspaper quotes one unnamed prime broker, who said: 'I'd like to say there was a bright spot, but there wasn't really'.

Finally, Morgan Stanley and Oliver Wyman said in a joint report issued Tuesday that the current banking crisis is the worst for over 30 years - surpassing Black Monday in 1987, the Asian crisis and the dot-com crash

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