Zuercher Kantonalbank is on the hunt for a new head of private banking, finews.com has learned.
The local-government backed lender has quietly mandated a search firm to replace Christoph Weber, a source familiar with the matter told finews.com. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment; it is understood to be a planned succession due to retirement.
The 61-year-old banker has run ZKB's private banking arm since 2008 – a run that is unmatched in Swiss private banking. In ZKB's top management, only CEO Martin Scholl has been in the job longer, since 2007.
Small Fry
ZKB doesn't disclose its assets, but it is small fry in wealth management terms: at the end of 2019, its client funds slipped to 63.8 billion Swiss francs ($66 billion), of which a fraction is offshore clients.
The local lender has in recent years poured money into the Austrian market, where it now employs roughly 100 staff. Joerg Mueller-Ganz, ZKB's chairman, has approached at least one potential candidate about replacing Weber in the job.
Ageing Ranks
A person familiar with ZKB's board's thinking said it is part of its job to continually evaluate long-term succession for key bankers as well as top management. Scholl is among Swiss bank CEOs who have been in the job the longest, as finews.com reported in March.
The private banking job is also an opportunity to refresh and diversify ZKB's top ranks: six of eight top managers are 58 or older; all are Swiss men. Weber had joined ZKB at the peak of the 2008/09 financial crisis: he was previously the head of Banca del Gottardo's northern region. The Ticino bank disappeared into Italian insurer Generali in 2008.
