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The various Swiss banking lobby groups aren’t speaking with one voice. This has something to do with the head of the industry association, according to information obtained by finews.com.

Herbert J. Scheidt was at his best at the Swiss Bankers Day in September 2017. While statistics with proof of greatness and catchy slogans adorned the walls of the conference center in Zurich, the title of the chairman’s speech of the Bankers Association wasn’t unnecessarily shy either: «Remaining at the top.»

The bank managers and officials of the banking lobbies applauded generously. Today, the support is evaporating quickly. The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) is finding it hard and increasingly harder to keep the diverse interests of Swiss banking united under one umbrella, or so it seems.

A Polarized Industry

Markus Gygax, the head of Valiant regional bank, recently told the Swiss business paper «Finanz und Wirtschaft»: «There are topics, where big, private and domestic banks only have the word bank in common.»

It isn’t only an issue of the situation of the industry which weigh on the SBA – with regulation and structural change affecting companies very strongly. It is also about the SBA management, according to information obtained by finews.com. SBA Chairman Scheidt has a polarizing effect among members, according to several mutually independent sources.

How come? The German-born banker with a Swiss passport is one of the most prominent bank managers in the country; Vontobel, which he presides over, has made shareholders rich and last week upstaged the industry with its takeover of Notenstein La Roche from Raiffeisen Switzerland. It can’t be a question about his success in business, for sure.

Questions of Style

But what proves successful at a bank such as Vontobel doesn’t necessarily need to work at an association. One source says that Scheidt was governing the SBA in a strictly hierarchical way, a way he is used to from the bank. It is his word which counts and he has a tendency to making sure in great detail that it is being implemented, the source said.

These may be issues of style. But in the fragile balance of the diverse banking groups (and interests), a top banker may feel snubbed by a directive issued by the SBA chairman. A feeling that seem to prevail at smaller but also larger institutes along Zurich’s banking mile.

United and Strong Voice of Banking

SBA CEO Claude-Alain Margelisch begs to differ. Following the financial crisis, politics and the general public clearly expected the banker association to speak with one – strong – voice and to be clear about its position, even if they proved unpopular.

The association was therefore committed to an integrative approach and to pursuing a clear strategy. «Politics and the general public have to be able to rely on the statements of the bankers association,» Margelisch said. «Anything else will not be of any help for the financial market.»

The chairman had a very demanding mandate of honor to fulfill, the CEO said. One of the most important duties for the chairman was to moderate the diverging opinions within the industry. «This requires that all members work together in a professional manner, which the chairman has demanded them to do.» And which he successfully was doing as statistics proved to be the case: more than 90 percent of decisions at board level were unanimous.

Difficult Selection Process