Steve Fragnière did not make the cut to become regional head at the new UBS-CS in Romandy. Now he will be working for the local competition.
By losing Steve Fragnière, Credit Suisse Switzerland – now a banking subsidiary of UBS – has lost yet another regional head. As we learned when inquiries were made at Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), the former CS executive is in charge of their Swiss (onshore) private banking division.
He is taking over from Patrick Botteron (image below), who in turn will be running the newly created center of competences for private banking. Since the start of the year, the state-owned bank’s center of competences has collated complementary services such as asset planning, business consulting, property finance and financial products. Industry platform «Citywire» was the first to report on the switch.
(Image: BCV)
Just Two of Ten Regions go to CS Staff
In the summer of 2022, Fragnière was promoted to CS regional head in Romandy. At that time, the executive was looking back on 20 years at CS, and had already established a network in the corporate client business. When the new regional head roles at UBS Switzerland were being marked out last October, however, he drew the shorter straw against UBS man Patrick Bourloud.
Now, he has clearly taken appropriate action, just like the former CS head for Switzerland’s Mittelland region Martin Arregger, who is also leaving UBS-CS. Last autumn, a total of just three of the ten regional management jobs at UBS went to former staff of the banking subsidiary; of these, Sabine Heller (chosen for the Zurich region) has already switched to private bank Lombard Odier instead.
A Reunion at BCV
Now at BCV, Fragnière has encountered a former predecessor from CS: Christian Steinmann, former head of the western Switzerland region, switched to the cantonal bank in 2022. There, he heads the whole private banking division. As such, he is part of the bank’s senior management, and now also the boss of newcomer Fragnière.
