Page 2 of 2

Firefighting U.S. Tax Scandal

His first two years as boss were spent firefighting: BKB – again through its Zurich branch – was found to be waist-deep in undeclared money from U.S. clients. It fell to Lachappelle to clean up the U.S. case – something that he only managed two weeks ago. BKB paid a $60.4 million fine (Lachappelle has stowed roughly 100 million Swiss francs against a potential fine).

Insiders describe Lachappelle as energetic and approachable. The Swiss banker's parents ran «Altes Warteck,» a traditional restaurant in Basel which has since made way for Claraturm, a high-rise being built by UBS' property arm.

Lachappelle was visible inside and outside of the bank, and undertook considerable effort to repair state-backed BKB's tarnished image as an institution of Basel. He redoubled BKB's sponsoring efforts, for example, and took time for charitable events.  

Approachable C-Suite

As a father of five in a patchwork family, Lachappelle also embodies a new, more realistic breed to top executive. He is credited with promoting women at BKB, which has one of the highest proportion of women in top management of Swiss banks, when including subsidiary Bank Cler.

Lachappelle also grabbed the chance to transform and update the cantonal bank by reviving bank branches and pushing through several digital initiatives. «We are building a cathedral, and it costs as much as well,» Lachappelle told finews.com last year.

Digital Spearheading

Part of the revamp is to fully take over Bank Cler, using the lender as the digital spearhead for BKB. Lachappelle has recognized that regional borders are meaningless as margins erode for Swiss lending and retail banking, and that a digital offering is the right strategy.

Now, Lachappelle has to foster similar changes at Raiffeisen: the cooperative lender is behind on digitization, and a long-delayed implementation of its new, technology platform from Avaloq has put the brakes on any other digital projects.

Solving the digital conundrum at Raiffeisen will be one of Lachappelle's first priorities - Raiffeisen's current board has vowed to get the bank in shape for the 21st century.