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Axel Weber (63), president of the main bank UBS, apparently wants to turn the big wheel in the fall of his career, which will merge UBS with another major European bank.
Speculation that this bank could be Credit Suisse faded this week: resistance at CS, in Switzerland, and probably also at UBS itself, is too great.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be the neighbor of Paradeplatz. Men like Weber obviously think bigger, more European. According to a report from “SonntagsZeitung”, Weber wants to buy Deutsche Bank if the bank is one of the “possible merger targets” of the UBS president.
In the strategy games in the UBS boardroom, names like the British institutes Barclays or Lloyds Banking Group or the German Commerzbank appeared. Weber’s executive assistant on the way to becoming a European superbank: Ralph Hamers (54), the new CEO of UBS. The Dutchman takes office on November 1.
Unrest among European banks
The background to the hustle and bustle: Within UBS, they are specifically looking for banks that are set up similarly to those with which the Swiss credit institute competes, but which at the same time complement each other well, especially in investment banking. UBS declined to comment on the information, it says in the newspaper’s report.
What is clear, however, is that the European banking landscape is facing a wave of consolidation and one or the other institute is likely to be absorbed. After the financial crisis, European banks lost contact with American or Asian competition and are now often too small to play a role globally.
In this situation, it can make a lot of sense to seek out new partners like UBS rather than being absorbed by others. (koh)
