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Koerner isn't a charmer on the order of UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti or designated top private banker Iqbal Khan. The former McKinsey consultant is stiff, cerebral, and – like fellow ex-McKinseyite Tidjane Thiam – can be abrupt and cold with subordinates whom he deems to be of inferior intelligence. 

CEO vs Counteroffer

His ambition is legendary: when asked to stand in as CEO when Gruebel left suddenly following a $2 billion rogue trading scandal, Koerner made a counteroffer. Give me the job permanently, he told the board at the time, or not at all, according to several sources familiar with the matter. The board demurred. Ermotti agreed to stand in instead and clinched the job permanently two months later.

Koerner is officially with UBS until the end of March, but he hands over his job to Suni Harford next month. The game theory is that he could stand for election to Credit Suisse's board in April, in time to inherit the chairman job from Rohner in 2021.

Cultural Sensitivities

Koerner is originally German but naturalized in Switzerland several years ago. Credit Suisse, like UBS, hews to the informal rule that either chairman or CEO be Swiss: former Bundesbanker Axel Weber is German, while Ermotti is Swiss. At Credit Suisse, Rohner is meant to embody Credit Suisse's «Swissness» for Thiam, who is French and Ivorian.

Following a successful revamp of Credit Suisse, Thiam is viewed as a viable candidate to succeed Rohner as well. The board considers Lara Warner, a Credit Suisse veteran and currently risk boss, as the most promising internal candidate to succeed Thiam, the people said – the U.S.-Australian would be the first woman to run a major bank in Europe.