UBS asks ex-boss Sergio Ermotti to oversee emergency takeover of Credit Suisse
Banking giant UBS has recalled former boss Sergio Ermotti to oversee the emergency takeover of rival Credit Suisse.
Less than two weeks after the shotgun marriage deal to save Credit Suisse from collapse, UBS says Ermotti will take over the reins, having led the firm for nine years before stepping down in 2020. .
He replaces UBS chief executive Ralph Hamers, who helped broker the £2.6bn bailout deal this month but agreed to step down.
Summit: From left, UBS boss Ralph Hamers, Sergio Ermotti and UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher meet in Zurich, Switzerland
The bank said it acted “in light of new challenges and priorities facing UBS following the announcement of the acquisition.”
Ermotti led the Zurich bank following the 2008 financial crisis, a fraudulent dealing scandal in 2011 where it lost £1.6bn and the start of the pandemic.
UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher said: “I am very confident that Sergio will deliver the integration so essential for banking customers, employees and investors, as well as for Switzerland. I know Sergio will hit the ground running.
Victoria Scholar, an analyst at Interactive Investor, said he was “an expert in crisis management”.
Ashley Pittard, head of global equities at investment management firm Pendal, said: “Without a doubt, he is the right person for the job.”
“He’s the guy you want to right the ship as an executive and then become president for the longer term.
“Sergio was in the trenches during and after the global financial crisis when UBS was struggling.”
Hamers said he was “stepping down in the interest of the new combined entity and its stakeholders, including Switzerland and its financial sector.”
As many as 40,000 jobs are expected to be cut out of the combined 120,000 employees.
Kelleher said his primary goal was to align Credit Suisse with UBS’s “conservative risk culture.”
Part of that plan is to shrink Credit Suisse’s sprawling investment banking arm, something Ermotti did at UBS in 2011.
