U.S. giant Blackrock is trying to return to a steady growth after a series of rather difficult months, with cuts and reshuffles at the forefront of measures taken. The problems it faces in Switzerland however looks more deep-rooted, finews.com can reveal.

The letter sent to Blackrock’s 13,900 members of staff on Tuesday contained information about the company’s biggest reshuffle in a decade. The changes ordered by the top management reach as far as Switzerland (finews.com reported).

The announcement didn’t come unexpectedly. The powerhouse of fund management struggled in what proved to be a particularly challenging year 2018 and assets under management fell 5 percent, the first decline in years. The giant’s stock exchange valuation fell by about a quarter.

Top Shot Departures in Switzerland

The management led by CEO Larry Fink wielded axe at the beginning of the year 2019, announcing the elimination of 500 jobs worldwide – 3 percent of Switzerland's 100 position were also affected by the measure, finews.com learned.

The cuts in Switzerland were preceded by a series of departures in previous months. The company, considered a major force on the Swiss financial market with its flagship offices along Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse, faced the resignations of a number of experienced managers.

Moving to the Competition

In March of last year, Swiss CEO Christian Staub (pictured below) departed, taking up the position as head of Europe at Fidelity International. The departures of the much respected executive came as a surprise and the company had to install an interim successor: Mirjam Staub-Bisang(pictured above).

Staub 500

In June, the next departure came: Christian Gast, head of iShares at Blackrock Switzerland, handed in his resignation. Sven Wuerttemberger, who under Gast was in charge of German-speaking Switzerland had taken a marketing team along to DWS a couple of months earlier.

In December, the deputy head of iShares, Marco Strohmeier, moved to the Swiss branch of Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager.

More to Follow?

A further departure at the iShares-team was announced in recent days and sources close to the firm say that the company has been notified of more resignations at the index fund unit.

So, the question is why this flurry of departures following years of steady success?  «The fact that so many prominent people are leaving and finding better jobs at other companies speaks for itself,» an insider said. «It can’t be the people themselves.»

No Longer Winners

Opinions are divided about what the root cause of the Swiss unit’s problems is. Some say it is about the challenging environment with enormous pressure from a squeeze on margins and investors who are pulling out their assets from products sold by the company.

The latter may have affected the U.S. giant a little more than its rivals, observers suggested, not least because Blackrock managers got used to be on the winning side.

Mounting Frustration