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Axel Weber, 63, hesitates. The German, who has chaired UBS since 2012, no longer enjoys the support of the majority of his colleagues on the Board of Directors.
This after information about Ralph Hamers’s employment as CEO and his possible prosecution by the Dutch criminal authorities reached the public.
On Sunday 10 days ago, SonntagsZeitung released secret details about how Weber chose Hamers as the new CEO of UBS despite his legacy.
The newspaper spoke of a “Dutch consulting firm” that had examined the allegations against Hamers on behalf of Swiss headhunter Egon Zehnder.
The board of directors now fears that “Hamers’s cause could become a problem for the chairman of the board, Axel Weber.”
This passage does not indicate Weber as the source of the sheet. But the other members of the board are not sure.
“They ask questions about how those intimates could be made public,” says a source. “The search for the escape is in full swing.”
The pressure on Weber increases every day. Bloomberg reported yesterday that UBS chairman Weber would discuss with board members “how much the criminal investigation of Dutchman Hamers would affect his position as CEO.”
What seems like a problem for Hamers is in fact a problem for Axel Weber. The theorist, who once headed the Bundesbank and holds the title of professor, is struggling to survive as captain of UBS.
Because, according to the source, Hamers had openly laid the cards on the table before being employed. He did not hide anything about his pending court case.
It is a shareholder of the Dutch ING, of which Hamers was CEO and under whose leadership the bank had to pay a heavy fine for money laundering.
The plaintiff demanded that Hamers also go personally to the till. A court ruled that he was right and ordered criminal investigators to investigate Hamers.
“Hamers can remain CEO because nothing new has come up against him,” says the source.
The case is different with Weber. “He still doesn’t realize how much the virtual reality mood has turned against him.”
According to the insider, Weber played with hole cards, the exact opposite of Hamers.
He did not openly inform his BoD colleagues about the bank’s risk with Hamers.
In September, shortly after Hamers started at UBS, it was announced that Weber would like to merge CS with UBS, under his leadership.
Weber had already installed a project called “Signal” for this purpose.
The premature announcement of Weber’s “takeover” plans hurt UBS. Now there is the game of hide and seek around Hamers’ employment.
Weber also interferes with the operational aspect. He is said to be behind the advance announcement in the German coaches magazine of Sabine Keller-Busse as the successor to Axel Lehmann as head of Switzerland.
Yesterday’s Bloomberg story titled “UBS Board Measures Consequences of ING’s Laundering Investigation on New CEO” could be an indication that things are getting tough for Weber.
Even when Weber came to the presidential throne, events followed one another. At that time, Kaspar Villiger, the former federal councilor, should have remained as president for another year.
But because CEO Oswald Grübel resigned in the fall of 2011 after a loss of $ 2 billion in derivatives in London and no one else was there but “rookie” Sergio Ermotti, Villiger became a problem.
Ultimately, the Board of Directors decided that Axel Weber would start as president at UBS a year earlier and that Villiger could leave ship after just 3 years.
Weber now faces a similar fate: premature departure as captain of the super tanker.
