Zurich (AFP)

The Swiss bank UBS created the surprise by announcing the appointment of a new boss, Ralph Hamers, currently at the helm of the Dutch bank ING, to succeed Sergio Ermotti, who had been running the bank for almost nine years.

He must join the executive committee of UBS from September 1, to ensure a "smooth transition" and officially take office on November 1, said the number one in the Swiss banking sector in a statement.

"Ralph is the managing director we need to bring our company to a new chapter" in its history, said Axel Weber, chairman of the board of directors of UBS, quoted in the press release, who highlighted the switch to digital that he led at ING.

Under his leadership, ING Group has made "a fundamental change" and "is now considered one of the best examples of digital innovation in the banking sector," UBS said in the statement.

If the rumors around the succession have been going well for several months, the choice of this external candidate surprised, however. The profile of the two banks is clearly different, the historic business of UBS being wealth management while ING is more focused on retail banking. In addition, the indices distilled in the press suggested that the choice would rather be made in the ranks of UBS.

Joined ING in 1991, Mr. Hamers, 53, spent his entire career with the Dutch bank, which he took over in 2013 after having risen through the ranks, holding various positions, including managing activities in Belgium and in Romania.

The two institutions have in common that they are "systemically important banks", defended Axel Weber at a press conference in Zurich, insisting that the priority was above all to ensure an orderly succession, in entrusting the orders to a boss capable of leading a large bank "complex like UBS".

"The main objective is to pass the bank to the next generation," he insisted, explaining that "the bank today is a bank different from the one we inherited".

Axel Weber, the former boss of the German Central Bank, was entrusted with the presidency of UBS in 2012, a few months after the appointment of Mr. Ermotti while the Swiss bank, already shaken by the subprime crisis, Toxic mortgage loans at the heart of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, was also splashed by a series of scandals, including the vast brokerage losses of a trader who had cost the bank more than 2 billion.

While still little known in Switzerland, Mr. Ermotti was initially appointed to ensure the transition but quickly established himself and was confirmed in his functions. He then launched a major reorganization of the investment bank and put the emphasis on wealth management.

-Cap on digitization-

The new boss of the bank will take up the torch on the dispute with France, where the bank was sanctioned in February last year for "illegal bank canvassing" and "money laundering aggravated by tax fraud".

The Paris Criminal Court had ordered the bank to pay a fine of 3.7 billion euros, the heaviest fine ever imposed by French justice in a tax evasion case. The bank had appealed.

At 1:51 p.m. GMT, the UBS share won 2.48% at 13.23 Swiss francs, against the trend of the SMI, the benchmark index of the Swiss Stock Exchange, down 0.41%.

"With Hamers, digitization should take a leap forward," reacted Javier Lodeiro, analyst at the cantonal bank of Zurich, in a stock commentary.

Mr. Hamers has built a solid reputation by taking over the controls of ING when the bank was in a difficult situation to repay the 10 billion euros in public aid granted at the time of the financial crisis. The bank finally repaid its loans with interest in November 2014, seven months before the due date.

His mandate was however punctuated by a case of fraudulent use of accounts which had led to the resignation of the financial director and by a controversy around his bonus in 2018 which he had finally given up.

© 2020 AFP