VP Bank's CEO Alfred Moeckli is leaving after clashing with his board over the Liechtenstein-based bank's next strategic step, two sources familiar with the matter told finews.com.
Earlier on Tuesday, Vaduz-based VP Bank said CEO Alfred Moeckli would leave his job this week – and started the search for a successor. The bank said age-related succession plans were behind the 58-year-old Swiss banker's sudden and unexpected exit.
Moeckli had clashed with the board of VP Bank as the lender begins tackling the follow-on to its current strategy, through 2020, two sources familiar with the departure told finews.com. A spokeswoman for the bank said the strategy process doesn't begin until summer.
Strategy From 2020
Unveiled in 2015 by Moeckli, the bank's current strategy targets 50 billion Swiss francs ($50.4 billion) in assets, 80 million in net profit, and a cost-income ratio of less than 70 percent.
Moeckli won't be around to present where VP stands halfway through the plan at full-year results on March 5. The bank's assets stood at 40.9 billion francs, its net income at 29.3 million francs, and its cost-income ratio of 70.3 percent after the first six months of last year. The bank also said it wanted to hone its focus and improve its culture in the 2020 plan.
Rancorous Exit?
The abrupt exit of Moeckli, who had been in the job for the past six years and won't immediately be replaced, raises the specter of rancor between him and the bank. Moeckli didn't directly address this in an exit letter sent to associates, where he noted that he had returned VP Bank to growth.
«After a break, I will devote myself to new challenging assignments and I look forward to contributing my knowledge and my experience to future mandates,» Moeckli said in the message, seen by finews.com. He is receptive to taking board mandates, Moeckli told finews.com.
Foreign Woes
Last year, Moeckli told finews.ch (in German) that he planned to enjoy the fruits of VP's success awhile longer. More recently, he was forced to issue a profit warning for 2018.
VP's business abroad has also been in the headlines: it shut a representative office in Moscow, as finews.com reported, amid lawsuits it faces in Russia. The bank's head of wealth management in Singapore also left after just ten months, as finews.com reported on Monday.
