UBS Chairman Steps Down

UBS AG has stated that Chairman Peter Kurer will step down after a year in office. Swiss politician Kasper Villiger will replace Kurer at the banks shareholder meeting on April 15.
By None

UBS AG has stated that Chairman Peter Kurer will step down after a year in office. Swiss politician Kasper Villiger will replace Kurer at the banks shareholder meeting on April 15.

“I now think it is time to complete this transition and leave the office at the end of my one-year term,” Kurer said.

The move comes after US$50 billion in writedowns. Sergio Marchionne, Vice Chairman of UBS said, “No one could have reasonably foreseen the extent and speed of deterioration of market conditions affecting the financial services industry. The impact on UBS has been significant and the organizations resilience and endurance has been severely tested.

Villiger, 68, was a member of the Swiss governing cabinet from 1989 to 2003 as finance minister, and a member of the Swiss Federal Council. According to a UBS statement: During [Villigers] time in public service, the Federal Council took crucial decisions, such as enacting legislation against money laundering, initiating a supervisory body for financial markets and finalizing the EU Directive on the Taxation of Savings Income, aimed at strengthening the Swiss financial market.”

He joins a week after former Credit Suisse Group Chief Executive Oswald Grbel was appointed CEO of UBS replacing Marcel Rohner, and in the middle of a probe by the American government into whether the company helped American citizens evade taxes.

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