Adriana Ospel, the widow of disgraced former UBS boss Marcel Ospel, wants to join the council of a troubled cantonal bank. Her chances of winning the job jumped when she recently defected to a right-wing political party.
Elections for Schwyzer cantonal bank's council on June 24 reveal a surprising twist: Adriana Ospel is standing for a seat on the council, according to documents (in German) prepared by the bank.
The local lender is in the midst of an ugly legal dispute involving Phoenix, a pension fund. Its council president Kuno Kennel, a former Barclays Swiss capital markets banker, was forced out of the job last year due to the scandal.
Political Switcheroo
Ospel, the widow of ex-UBS Chairman Marcel Ospel, told Swiss local daily «Hoefner Volksblatt/March Anzeiger» (behind paywall, in German) that payouts would be a focus because the canton expects to take in less tax money in coming years. She said her role is as a council overseer would be to chaperone the «leading bank».
The 45-year-old faces questions due to a switch four months ago from the business-friendly Liberal Free Democratic Party, or FDP, to the right-wing People's Party, or SVP. The move lifts her chances of making it into the cantonal bank's council.
Scion of Swiss Dynasty
A banker and scion of the wealthy Bodmer financial dynasty, she sold her private market boutique last year to Bank am Bellevue, where she remains a strategic adviser. Besides Ospel, ex-UBS and Goldman Sachs banker Claude Schmidt as well as Richard Foehn, a regional fiduciary, are standing for election. Ospel's election is widely viewed as a formality.
The Phoenix scandal represents the cantonal bank's most pressing issue: it is in a public legal battle with Aargau's pension fund, which wants 12 million Swiss francs ($12.6 million) in damages from the bank. Kennel, the former chairman, stepped down after it emerged that the bank had invested in a vehicle run by Phoenix's former boss, and had to take a 10 million franc write-down on the investment.
