I always say that any work day without at least one client meeting is a bad day. I still do a lot of client meetings in my current role – more than 200 last year. I want to stay true to my motto.
Graduates today prefer to work for tech firms or start-ups instead of banks. Are you still recruiting good staff to train up?
It's certainly not easy to fund well-qualified staff. We're in competition with other banks, consulting firms, fintechs, asset and wealth managers, but also with insurers and pension funds, both of which are increasingly trying to grab our market share.
It's also not that easy to find staff abroad, especially outside the European Union, both because of the quotas but also because many potential staff prefer to work for big tech firms.
You recently lost Marco Illy, a grandee of Credit Suisse who used to be your boss in investment banking. What do you think of his defection to UBS?
Marco Illy actually hired me in 1999 and we have a good relationship until the end. Last January, we implemented what we had already agreed back in 2015, which was to transfer the operational leadership of the Swiss investment bank to Jens Haas. Marco stepped into the chairman's role, and focused on a certain number of clients.
«I look forward to competing against Marco Illy»
It was the right decision: Jens Haas is undoubtedly the best investment banker in Switzerland and the real dealmaker behind Credit Suisse here. He also works with a highly-qualified and very experienced team in mergers-and-acquisitions as well as equity and debt capital markets, which are led by bankers with more than 20 years experience each.
We'll be competing against Marco when he moves to UBS soon. I'm looking forward to it.
Credit Suisse said it wants to be part of banking consolidation in Switzerland. We haven't seen much evidence of that yet.
