return for the fatherland
Sergio Ermotti originally wanted to be a professional footballer. The Ticino’s management style is considered “rustic”
What: AFP
After the forced merger with the crisis bank Credit Suisse, UBS brought Sergio Ermotti back to the top of the group. There are not only technical reasons for the appointment. Nationality obviously also plays a major role in personal matters.
Sergio Ermotti makes it clear straight away that there is much more at stake here than personal satisfaction. The reasons he gives for his surprising return are more similar to those for which Jupp Heynckes has repeatedly hired as a coach at FC Bayern Munich.
Because he is needed. Because duty calls, in Ermotti’s case even the fatherland. And because then you can’t say no. It’s about avoiding consequences for the Swiss taxpayer, says the manager at his presentation on Wednesday morning. And that he will do everything to make his mission a success.
Meanwhile, the incumbent grandees of the major Swiss bank UBS, Chairman of the Board of Directors Colm Kelleher and CEO Ralph Hamers, look straight ahead. At Hamers there are also personal reasons for this. Ermotti’s successor will also be his predecessor from next week. Because then, after a three-year break, the 62-year-old from Ticino will be moving into the executive office at the group’s headquarters on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse for the second time. From 2011, he had been in charge of UBS for nine years.
And quite successfully. A program called “Accelerate” set up together with former Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who had moved to Zurich as head of the board of directors, got the bank, which had been hit hard by the financial crisis, back on track: it cut its investment banking significantly earlier than other institutions and relied fully on its original strengths , the global business of millionaires and billionaires. It was risky, but it paid off. Today, hardly any European bank is in a better position than UBS.
Ermotti is now to bring this experience to the integration of the emergency merger agreed upon at the insistence of the Swiss government. He has another advantage on his mission: he is Swiss. Chairman Kelleher dismissed the fact that this could have been the decisive factor. However, the fact is “nice”, said the Irish manager, who had worked for the US bank Morgan Stanley for 30 years before his engagement in Switzerland. Hamers also explained his resignation with the interests of “Switzerland and its financial sector.”
The board of directors of UBS apparently did not believe that the Dutchman, who was poached by ING three years ago, would be able to handle the difficult integration of the smaller rival, despite the excellent figures recently. “In the situation, it is particularly important that the number one has internal and external credibility,” says a former UBS banker.
Hamers had primarily promoted topics such as agile working, diversity and digitization. The fact that he wanted to convert the bank into a “Netflix of wealth” may have irritated as many employees internally as it did enthusiastically.
The rather rustic Ermotti, who originally actually wanted to be a professional soccer player and worked his way up the ladder as the son of a simple bank employee without a degree, meets the current sensitivities better. “New UBS needs a Swiss at the top,” the finance blog “Inside Paradeplatz” rejoiced.
Ermotti knew from his first term that banking is a matter of national interest. When a number of German managers, such as ex-Commerzbank chairman Martin Blessing and risk director Christian Bluhm, occupied central positions alongside Weber, chairman of the board of directors, concerns spread about the excessive influence of the moderately popular northern neighbor.
The possibly harmful influence of top foreign executives also plays a role in the analysis of the decline of Credit Suisse. The current management duo of Chairman of the Board of Directors Axel Lehmann (always Swiss) and CEO Ulrich Körner (since more than 40 years in Switzerland) is considered unsuspicious. However, former CEOs Brady Dougan (USA) and Tidjane Thiam (Ivory Coast) are believed by many to be central figures in the crash.
“The Swiss economy plays no role for these people”
Above all, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is now demanding consequences. “When managers from Singapore or the USA drive our company against the wall, they are over the mountains the next day,” said National Councilor Thomas Matter.
Although there were many women on the bank’s board of directors, there were only a few locals. In the future, the majority of the members of the body must have a Swiss passport. And ownership is also a cause for concern. “Today, Credit Suisse is owned by Saudis, Qataris and so on. The Swiss economy plays no role for these people,” said Matter.
Representatives of other parties were more reserved: “It is important that the management team of a company that is important for our economy has a connection to Switzerland and our culture,” said Prisca Birrer-Heimo from the Social Democratic Party SP. At least there is no doubt about that at Ermotti.