Troubled Swiss bank UBS made another major management reshuffle yesterday, saying its chairman Peter Kurer would step down and former Swiss finance minister Kaspar Villiger was nominated to succeed him.
The latest change sees another member of the old guard at Switzerland’s biggest bank being replaced by an outsider, barely a week after its chief executive Marcel Rohner resigned and was replaced by former Credit Suisse chief executive Oswald Gruebel.
It gave a boost to the share price, which opened up 3.34 percent at 10.22 Swiss francs.
UBS has been struggling to recover after losing billions in the US subprime home loan crisis and the ensuing financial meltdown. It is also caught up in a legal dispute with the US over a tax evasion probe.
UBS vice-chairman Sergio Marchionne said the “extent and speed of deterioration of market conditions” could not have been forecast, and credited Kurer for helping to put UBS “back on track.”
Kurer said most of the tasks he set out to achieve, including the reduction of risks and re-examination of the bank’s strategy, have been “accomplished in a short period of time.”
“I now think it is time to complete this transition and leave the office at the end of my one-year term,” he said in a statement.
Amid the bank’s legal troubles in the US over allegations it helped wealthy Americans evade taxes, Kurer has come under pressure in recent months due to his previous position at the bank as chief legal officer.
UBS has now nominated 68-year-old Villiger, who was Switzerland’s finance minister between 1995 and 2003, to take over.
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