UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has selected the Credit Suisse executives he intends to join his management team, betting that they can contribute to the success of the most significant banking operation since the financial crisis.
Among the Credit Suisse executives most likely to survive the takeover are Dixit Joshi, chief financial officer, Francesca McDonagh, chief operating officer, and André Helfenstein, head of the Swiss business, according to several people familiar with the plans .
Ermotti, back to running UBS extension in March, after the bank agreed to bail out its Zurich rival in a $3.25 billion deal orchestrated by Swiss authorities, it plans to unveil its new top team next week, with the takeover should be completed by the beginning of June.
UBS is preparing for a costly and risky integration process as it seeks to merge two global systemically important financial institutions into the most significant banking operation since the financial crisis.
Colm Kelleher, the bank’s chairman, said the integration could take up to four years, while elements of the deal, including the decision by Finma, the Swiss banking regulator, to wipe out $17 billion value of the bonds – are subject to dispute in the courts.
Completion of the deal is dependent on receipt of regulatory approval and approval from competition authorities. While most major regulators have given the green light, the European Commission has said EU antitrust bodies will make a decision by June 7.
Joshi and McDonagh joined Credit Suisse late last year, leaving them untouched by the bank’s recent scandals.
Joshi started as CFO on October 1st and he was immediately slipped in the bank’s efforts to keep customers on the run after a damning weekend of social media rumors about its financial health.
He was heavily involved in the bank’s $4.3 billion capital raise in his first few weeks on the job. His brief stint in the role was also marked by Credit Suisse delay the publication of its annual report in March after the US Securities and Exchange Commission made some last-minute requests for more information about its internal controls dating back to 2019.
McDonagh, who has left his role as chief executive of Bank of Ireland join Credit Suisse, was hired to be head of the Emea region. But before starting her, she was given the role of COO and asked to oversee a huge restructuring of the company.
As part of cutting costs by $2.8 billion over three years, it had begun reevaluating Credit Suisse’s global office footprint, including its underutilized 21-story London headquarters in Canary Wharf, which it leases from Qatar Investment Authority. But that review was suspended when the deal with UBS closed.
Helfenstein has managed Credit Suisse’s national bank for the past three years and is the longest-serving executive board member, having joined when Thomas Gottstein became CEO in 2020.
UBS executives view Credit Suisse’s home business as its “jewel in the crown” and would prefer to keep it intact. But combining it with UBS’s Swiss business has proved unpopular domestically and executives said all options are on the table for the unit.
Swiss newspaper NZZ reported last week that Tom Naratil, who managed UBS’s US businesses and was co-head of its wealth management division until last year, would return as part of the new management team as chief financial officer.
Naratil took on a finance role at West Point, the US military academy, this year, after leaving UBS in October. Previously he was CFO of UBS between 2011 and 2015.
UBS declined to comment on plans for the new executive team.
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