Fallen Swiss private banker Konrad Hummler is back. The former influential Wegelin banquier privé is putting his stellar network at the disposal of another private bank.
Konrad Hummler effectively dropped out of Swiss banking in 2012, when his St. Gallen-based private bank Wegelin & Co. was crushed by a U.S. indictment for aiding American tax dodgers and cheats. The remains of Wegelin were quickly repackaged and sold as Notenstein private bank, but Hummler and his partners were out of the business.
Since then, the loquacious private banker with literary ambitions – he penned an ode to napping in daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (in German) long before Ariane Huffington took up the cause – has retreated to consulting firm M1 in his native St. Gallen. He remains an opinionated man, as evidenced by economic and political commentary he writes for newsletter «bergsicht» as well as newspaper columns.
Wegelin Link
Now 65, the Swiss banker-elder statesman is back on the scene as chairman of Zurich's Private Client Bank, or PCB, according to the company's website. He oversees a seven-person board including three alumni of Goldman Sachs: Matthias Eppenberger, William Gruver and Robert Scherer.
Hummler, who famously flouted the U.S.' crackdown on tax evasion only to pay the ultimate price when his bank collapsed under a criminal investigation, means far more visibility for PCB. Run by CEO Ivan Adamovich, the bank was founded as a family office of 20 finance professionals in 1998.
The CEO presumably paved the way for Hummler's rehabilitation in the banking industry: Adamovich was part of Wegelin's top management from 2009 until its collapse, and then as deputy CEO of its successor bank, Notenstein.
