Stefano Rellandini/ReutersSergio P. Ermotti joined UBS in April from the Italian bank UniCredit.
7:55 a.m. | Updated
LONDON – UBS said on Tuesday that Sergio P. Ermotti, who has run the Swiss bank on an interim basis since September, would become permanent chief executive and take the reins of a strategic restructuring.
Axel A. Weber, a former chief of the German central bank, will take over as chairman next year, a year earlier than planned, UBS said. The bank accelerated the leadership change to speed up implementation of a new investment banking strategy, which UBS is expected to present to investors on Thursday in New York.
“The bank has a lot of restructuring to do and as interim C.E.O. with a chairman on his way out there’s little you can actually do,” said Florian Esterer, a fund manager at Swisscanto Asset Management. “This way UBS can slowly start moving forward.”
Mr. Ermotti, a Swiss national, joined UBS as management board member responsible for Europe in April and was widely seen as a potential successor to the former chief executive, Oswald J. Grübel. Mr. Ermotti stepped into that role on an interim basis when Mr. Grübel resigned after the bank lost $2.3 billion in a rogue trading scandal at its London investment banking division.
The changes “will bring essential stability and clarity to UBS,” Kaspar Villiger, the current chairman, said in a statement. “It will enable the bank to master the many current economic challenges and regulatory changes facing it.” He said the decision to make Mr. Ermotti the permanent chief came after UBS “carried out an intensive evaluation of external and internal candidates.”
Some analysts expressed doubts that UBS could find an outside candidate willing to take on the challenges at the bank, which is facing large job and cost cuts and needs to restore investor confidence after the trading loss.
UBS shares fell 2.9 percent in Zurich trading on Tuesday.
In his first internal note to employees as chief executive, obtained by DealBook, Mr. Ermotti warned that the UBS culture must ensure events like the trading loss do not happen again.
“I want to make clear that no one’s personal interest nor any amount of revenue is worth more than the bank’s reputation,” he wrote in the note.
A former UBS trader, Kweku M. Adoboli, is scheduled to appear in a London court next week to face charges of fraud and false accounting. He has yet to enter a plea.
UBS said a new strategy, which is expected to include a smaller and less expensive investment banking operation and a greater focus on the more successful wealth management business, had been approved by the board.
The strategy was developed by Mr. Grübel and Carsten Kengeter, head of the investment banking unit, to help UBS remain profitable despite tougher capital requirements and uncertain financial markets. It is now Mr. Ermotti’s responsibility to put the plan into action, and he told employees on Tuesday that he “will not rest until we succeed.”
“I will execute our strategy, which plays to our many strengths,” Mr. Ermotti said in a statement. “This strategy will be centered on our leading wealth management businesses and our position as the strongest universal bank in Switzerland. A focused, less complex and less capital-intensive investment bank and our asset management business are also key elements for growing our wealth management franchise.”
Mr. Ermotti, 51, joined UBS in April from the Italian bank UniCredit, where he was deputy chief executive. He previously worked at Merrill Lynch, where he was a co-head of global equity markets. He started at the firm’s equity derivatives and capital markets divisions in 1987.
Mr. Weber’s appointment as chairman is subject to his election by shareholders at the annual meeting scheduled for May 3. Mr. Villiger, the current chairman, would not be a candidate for election at the meeting.
“I am proud of what we have achieved during a very difficult time in our bank’s history,” Mr. Villiger said.
Mr. Weber said he would head to Switzerland in February to oversee the handover. He also said he knew Mr. Ermotti personally from his time at the German central bank and that the two men had spoken often over the last few weeks.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=402ca799f9d93d417ae9e0e57278bec6
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.