 |
||||||
| Friday, November 20, 2009 |
Contact Us
|
 RSS
|
|||||
|
|
| |
|||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
ANALYSIS
March 2, 2009
Sagging Index no longer reflects what’s going on in the market, some say, Replacements? Google it, to start.
March 2, 2009
Downward price spiral will actually boost the cost of capital for most companies. CFOS, take note.
March 2, 2009
The latest bailout at AIG could be a preview of how the president will deal with Wall Street.
March 2, 2009
No corporate defaults. Big debt offerings. Percolating CP issuance. Things may be looking up in the capital markets.
|
|
|
|
March 4, 2009 7:41 AM ET
(Reuters) — Former Swiss Finance Minister Kaspar Villiger will replace Peter Kurer as chairman of UBS, completing a top management clearout designed to set the beleaguered bank back on its feet. Investors welcomed Wednesday’s news, which follows last week’s appointment of former Credit Suisse head Oswald Gruebel as chief executive, as a sign the bank could resolve its tax spat with the United States and restore its reputation as the top banker to the world’s wealthy. “The bank looks much stronger now, it has a strong CEO (Gruebel) and a chairman untainted by the tax investigation,” Vontobel analyst Teresa Nielsen said. Kurer held the post of chairman for less than a year, during which UBS shares lost nearly 70% of their value, the bank was rescued by the government and it became embroiled in a U.S. tax probe that threatens Swiss banking secrecy. Villiger looked relaxed and glad to be back in the limelight at a press conference on Wednesday, in contrast to the downbeat Kurer sitting alongside, and said his political experience could help in UBS’s tax row with the United States. “You never know what your career will bring,” he said. “I know of course that I have to have a lot of respect for this job.” As finance minister, Villiger was a staunch defender of bank secrecy, now a controversial topic after UBS agreed to pay a $780 million fine and disclose the identity of about 300 of its U.S. clients to avert criminal charges. “As a former executive politician and entrepreneur one can be confident that he will manage to get the bank in calmer waters and regain trust,” said finance ministry spokesman Roland Meier. “With that the board is drawing a symbolic line under the past,” Meier said. “The new CEO Gruebel and the new chairman Villiger are seen as an ideal team for the reorientation of UBS.” The 68-year-old Villiger was born in central Switzerland and was a member of Switzerland’s governing Federal Council for 15 years. He served two one-year terms as the country’s president, a largely ceremonial role. He was finance minister when UBS was formed through the merger of UBS Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation and also when Swiss banks agreed a $1.25 billion settlement in 1998 with Holocaust victims who alleged banks has hoarded their wealth. That topic caused much soul-searching in Switzerland about the neutral country’s role in World War II. The banks initially resisted Jewish and U.S. pressure, after survivors complained that the banks refused to give back their money, demanding death certificates for people who perished in Adolf Hitler’s death camps, but eventually had to give in. Villiger is a member of the boards of the world’s largest food group Nestle and reinsurer Swiss Re and will resign all other corporate positions if elected chairman, UBS said. “Villiger has a good background, he has been involved in legislation against money laundering and he has international political connections. This will really bring some confidence back to UBS and distance the bank from the ongoing tax investigation,” Vontobel’s Nielsen said. UBS’s troubles were such that it accepted a 6-billion-franc shot in the arm from the Swiss government in October. The Swiss National Bank launched a fund for toxic UBS assets, which the central bank said lost nearly $1.7 billion by the end of 2008.
|
|
|
|
CRAIN'S BENEFITS OUTLOOK 2009
SPECIAL REPORT
MOST POPULAR
|
MORE ANALYSIS
Crain Financial Group:
InvestmentNews |
Pensions & Investments |
Workforce Management
Copyright ©2009 Crain Communications Inc
All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy |
Terms & Conditions