Julius Baer’s New CEO Takes on Old Guard to Revamp Swiss Bank
(Bloomberg) – As the Chairman of the Executive Board, Stefan Bollinger said to the staff at Julius Baer Group Ltd. It took more than 1,000 e -mail.
The response underlines the story, which was darkened by a series of scandals and brought to the correction of Bollinger, a two -year veteran of Wall Street Titan Sachs Group Inc. In January, he cut most of the management team and introduced a common structure for various management roles, which are another Goldman style innovation.
However, five months later, in the midst of a renovation labeled by an analyst with a “overwhelming” renovation, the bad news and internal resistance from the past continues to complicate their future plans. A regulatory investigation, an old money laundering penalty and another real estate loan, Bollinger and the new president Noel Quinn in the world before the company’s collapse of the real estate empire of Rene Benko’s real estate empire are some of the ghosts.
During the interviews with the current and old personnel who want anonymity to discuss private information, a picture of a bank struggling for balance-as a different, energetic management style-a painting can emphasize the property and the property of risk. Bollinger’s arrival gave energy to some parts of the 135 -year -old Zurich Bastion and alienated others. The transformation of the Swiss Bank culture – and how long investors will take to him – how long he can progress will be the key to the chance of success.
“No organization can be successful without the right culture, Bol Bollinger said at the beginning of this month that the bank aims to focus on“ performance and property ”on the investor day.
Julius Baer spokesman refused to comment.
The explanations – and the event in London, a first for the Swiss company – has been contributing to the evidence of the new tone under the Bollinger, the first CEO to join Julius Baer since 2009. The 50 -year -old child, a former head of a special reserve administration for Europe, Middle East and Africa in Goldman in London, tries to address the failures that have initiated Julius Baer for years: the search for growth at the expense of risk management and a lack of accountability for errors.
Since 2015, Zurich Bank has received brushes with US officials about its role in FIFA money laundering. Seeing that one of the bankers was imprisoned, Venezuela oil manufacturer played a role in the corruption scandals in PDVSA. Former CEO Boris Collardi left in 2017 after controlling a rapid expansion in Latin America.
Philipp Rickenbacher quit the best job after the Benko, but the firm has not rested yet. Julius Baer is under investigation by the Swiss regulator Finma for tours under the risk management of Benko’s Sign. In the center of the probe, it is an internal structure that allows a single customer to fluctuate.
The announcement of the Signa investigation in February triggered a 13% decline in stocks because it realized that a stock reinstatement program for the hope of the market was now even more far away. In the last decade, investors trapped in the stock has been awarded with an anemic single -digit price gain.
It is high in the Bollinger’s list of to -do to the focus of the finma investigation to progress rapidly, thus re -focusing to return money to shareholders. However, the burden of regulatory problems can make it difficult to reduce costs as planned. It was already forced to irrigate a productivity target inherited from the previous administration.
The Bollinger mission is complex due to settled interests in the bank. According to a person familiar with the subject, they run to the level of board of directors. The person is expected to come to another powerful stranger to the former HSBC Holdings PLC CEO Quinn, always shaking this directional mentality.
“Noel Quinn said it was a culture that should change, Bank said Bank Vontobel in Zurich and Banking Analyst, and Banking Analyst, said it was a culture that needs to change. “They noticed that they were a problem they should take.”
Bollinger’s career to date has focused on customers who are vital in the reserve management business, but there is no great bank execution experience before. Since it has taken over, it has focused on meeting customers and establishing a relationship with investors and regulators.
Only in the first week, the new CEO went to Geneva, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, according to a post on the LinkedIn page. According to another person familiar with Matter, he slept on the plane rather than the hotels on the hurricane tour.
The internal stakeholders say they have not seen much that they may encourage resistance to proposed measures. For example, two people who are familiar with the situation that the attempt to change the compensation structure of the relationship managers.
Julius Baer said, “The regional heads were very powerful and perhaps to resist Bollinger’s reforms,” Venditti said.
Some of Bollinger’s Goldman -style innovations aim to solve cultural problems such as introducing the common chief structure or encouraging stock ownership even at lower ranks for some management roles to share power and prevent Fiefdoms. Encouraging employees to talk is another cultural feature that they bring from the US company.
House cleaning won the Swiss national praise from willing employees for a new start. At the same time, according to two people, he left the accusations by others how the culture in Baer worked and did not devote time to learn.
Quinn’s support is the key to the new CEO in this respect. Julius Baer’s first president of Switzerland, HSBC, pioneered a series of strategic examination and is fully experienced in the complex stakeholder management of Bollinger.
He recalled two of them that the Bank’s past had to explain a financial penalty for Julius Baer’s six -year -old money laundering case, and 130 million Swiss Franc (160 million dollars) Writedown Real Real Estate Loans, which were not announced before.
Hit brought back the memories of the Benko disaster, which has shook the company for the last two years. According to two former employees, when the rumors of the problems of the Austrian investors began to be assembled in the second half of 2023, the atmosphere in the bank began to change in particular. People became agitated and tense. One person does not want to question the authority because he is afraid of a belief or reflections of people either.
During the months, Julius Baer had to write to be exposed to Benko and Signa, Rickenbacher and that time dismissed Romeo Lacher and announced that he had completely released from private credit.
Despite such setbacks, the bank’s new leadership may rightly point out that investors still give hope for now. The price-book ratio, which is a measure of the company’s trust in the expectations of the investor, is higher than neighboring UBS Group AG.
Julius Baer has a “great brand, great people, great business model,” said Bollinger this month. “This franchise has all the materials to capture future opportunities.”
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