Colm Kelleher will succeed Axel Weber as UBS chairman

UBS has proposed former Morgan Stanley president Colm Kelleher as its next chairman, followed by Axel Weber when he resigns next year after a decade of overseeing the Swiss lender.

The appointment of Kelleher, a 64-year-old Irishman who spent 30 years at Wall Street Bank, was announced Saturday morning. UBS conducted a broad external search for Weber’s successor, with former head of the Swiss National Bank, Philipp Hildebrand, and former UniCredit chief Jean Pierre Mustier attached to the role.

“Participating in shaping the bank’s future is a great privilege and I look forward to working with the Board of Directors, CEO Ralph Hamers and the entire team at UBS,” Kelleher said in a statement.

Hamers added: “Colm is bringing valuable banking expertise to the board and I look forward to working with him to further shape the future of UBS.”

Kelleher joined Morgan Stanley’s London office in 1989 after studying history at Oxford University. He ran the fixed income trading division in London before moving to New York and becoming CFO, then president. He resigned as number two in the bank in March 2019 and retained the role of senior adviser.

As chairman, he will work with Hamers, which took over UBS a year ago and has promised to speed up digitalisation. The Dutch former ING chief will present his vision for the group in a strategic update in February.

Weber said Kelleher brought a deep understanding of the global banking landscape to the role. “I am convinced that his background and skills will be of great value in continuing to bring the best of our company to customers, investors and employees,” he added.

One of the main planks in Hamer’s strategy will be a digital wealth manager for wealthy mass customers in the United States, which can be launched as early as next year. The launch would put UBS in more direct competition with Morgan Stanley, which is also targeting customers with between $ 250,000 and $ 2m of assets.

UBS has outperformed most of its European rivals in recent years, mainly due to its status as the world’s largest asset manager with a strong presence in Asia. The Zurich-based company has seen earnings increase during the pandemic, with its wealthy customers’ assets soaring thanks to the trillions of dollars that central banks have pumped into the global economy.

UBS has also benefited from the chaos of its biggest rival, Credit Suisse, which has suffered a series of scandals and massive trade losses that have cost it and its customers billions.

The search for the new chair was led by UBS director Jeremy Anderson and helped by the lender’s longtime headhunters, Egon Zehnder.

Recommended

During his long tenure at UBS, Weber helped stabilize the bank following a government bailout, shrinking the investment bank and prioritizing growth in asset management. This strategy established UBS as one of the most successful and valuable European lenders. Weber was president of the German Bundesbank between 2004 and 2011.

However, Weber leaves some pending cases to Kelleher, who will have to help guide UBS through some controversial lawsuits. A decision on the appeal of a court decision of 4.5 billion. EUR in France to ease tax fraud is expected in December.

A parallel case is also under investigation by the Belgian authorities. UBS has set aside $ 2 billion to cover the expected litigation costs.

Hamers himself is being investigated by a Dutch court for his role in a money laundering scandal during his time at ING. He has denied any wrongdoing.

UBS also announced that Lukas Gähwiler, chairman of the bank’s Swiss unit, would be nominated as vice chairman. Kelleher and Gähwiler will be nominated for election at the bank’s general meeting on April 6 next year.

Deutsche Bank on Friday announced The Dutch insurance veteran and board member of Citigroup, Alex Wynaendts, will succeed Paul Achleitner as chairman next year.

At the end of 2019, the private equity firm Cerberus – one of Deutsche’s largest shareholders – pushed for Achleitner’s exit and tried unsuccessfully to replace him with Kelleher.