Swiss financial giant, UBS, announced the launch of its new three-year share buyback program.

The program replaces the 2006/2007 plan, which ended on Wednesday. The new three-year program, rather than a one-year buyback, “underlines UBS’s long-term commitment to managing its capital and shows its continued disciplined approach to shareholder returns. It also gives UBS the flexibility to deploy capital for its first priority — the growth of its business,” the firm says.

Shares bought back under the plan will be canceled, successively, after shareholder approval at the respective annual general meetings in 2008, 2009 and 2010. UBS’s board of directors has set a maximum buyback limit of 10% of total share capital. Based on yesterday’s closing price for UBS shares, this would cost around 15 billion Swiss francs in total.

Under the 2006/2007 buyback program, 33,020,000 UBS shares were repurchased for a total value of CHF 2.4 billion.

“In the same fashion as past annual programs, repurchases will be made solely by UBS through a second virt-x trading line,” it noted. “The second trading line will be available starting today and ending March 8, 2010.