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The NZZ is ruthless today. With the election of Ralph Hamers as the bank’s new CEO, UBS’s board of directors has “seen and seen a risk that is difficult to calculate.”
This is the decision of a court in the Netherlands that the country’s criminal authority should investigate the former head of the Dutch ING.
UBS chief Hamers faces charges, in the worst case a criminal conviction.
After five weeks in office, the Dutchman becomes a threat to Switzerland’s leading bank.
He is accused of deliberately failing to prevent serious money laundering and never apologizing for crimes.
The president of UBS, Axel Weber, had to send an email of reassurance to the 70,000 employees of the bank yesterday.
“I have full confidence in Ralph Hamers’ ability to run our business,” Weber said.
“As part of the CEO nomination screening, UBS conducted a comprehensive background check on Ralph and also had an independent third party evaluate this matter.”
“The results of these independent evaluations and the assessment of the matter by the Dutch prosecution at that time have fully convinced us.”
What sounds good cannot hide the failure of Weber, who, as chairman of the UBS Board of Directors, is primarily responsible for the risky compromise.
Weber knew that Hamers’ case had not yet been ruled out. She was pending in court in The Hague when the German hoisted the Dutchman onto the poster as the new CEO of UBS.
Weber has been the bank’s strong man since he moved from the Bundesbank, where he was also president, to UBS’s Kapitänsbrücke in 2012.
Increasingly, Weber assumed command of the Swiss multinational, while those responsible for operations lost influence.
Not for the better for the bank. Weber was heavily involved in the decision to enter the black money war against France.
Prior to the first instance, UBS suffered a 5 billion loss in February 2019 and, in the worst case, faces a criminal conviction.
In the project to merge with CS this year, Weber failed to keep the planned agreement in the closest circle. When their plans were made public, the matter was off the table for now.
With Hamers, an even bigger bankruptcy follows. The mere fact that the head of UBS has to give information to Dutch criminal investigators in the coming months weakens the new operational flagship.
And with him the bank. Weber doesn’t seem to care much about that. With a grim expression, he continues as if nothing is wrong.
If he has his way, he will stay with UBS and Switzerland for a long time. According to a source, Weber plans to obtain the Swiss passport. You’ve already tried.
This in preparation for a term extension. The end of the Weber era at the big bank would be in the spring of 2022. But according to the source, Weber wants to remain president of UBS longer.
It would be a hit that could be successful. There is no known opponent of Weber on the bank’s board who could face the German.
Clear path for Axel, so the situation. There is no hopeful outlook for UBS if you take the results as far as a yardstick.
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