The Swiss exchange's top market surveillance watchdog was let go after less than one year in the role, finews.com has learned.
Jared Bibler took on the top market surveillance and enforcement job at Swiss stock exchange SIX last April. Less than eight months later, the prominent investigator is out at the exchange operator, a source familiar with the matter told finews.com.
A SIX spokesman confirmed that Bibler had left the firm due to «differing views of the role,» without elaborating. Bibler is well-known as a lead investigator in Iceland following the collapse of that country's financial sector in 2009. SIX's market investigators were responsible for turning up one of the biggest cases of insider trading in Switzerland, against Swiss turnaround expert Hans Ziegler, before Bibler's entrance last year.
Break With Past
The hire of Bibler, an MIT engineering graduate and ex-forensic investigator, was meant to mark a break with Switzerland's rather relaxed attitude towards insider trading. Few prominent cases had been brought by enforcers since laws against insider trading were reinforced in 2009.
Bibler told finews.com that SIX had let him go, just months after his hire in April. «I did my very best in this role and I regret that SIX opted to terminate my contract,» he said.
High-Profile Case
Last year, SIX's market enforcement arm – which doesn't have prosecutorial power – passed the Ziegler case to Swiss regulator Finma, which said it found 11 different instances at six firms in which the 65-year-old businessman had allegedly conducted insider dealings. Finma fined Ziegler 1.4 million Swiss francs before late last year passing the case on to Switzerland's attorney general, which is still investigating.
At SIX, Bibler has been temporarily replaced by Corinne Riguzzi, according to an organizational chart on the firm's website. Riguzzi formerly held the enforcement job for nearly five years before her promotion to SIX's overall regulatory head last year.
