Another top executive of the Swiss bank's heavyweight structured products arm is leaving, finews.com has learned. The unit's upheaval comes just over one year after a major, wider restructuring.
Thomas Stadler (pictured below) is leaving Vontobel's Deritrade business, which he oversaw until last summer, a source familiar with the matter told finews.com. The Swiss banker's decision to exit follows a series of other key departures in Vontobel's heavyweight structured products arm.
A spokesman for the Zurich-based bank confirmed to finews.com that «some employees, who also worked on the Deritrade platform,» will leave Vontobel. Stadler replaced Eric Wasescha, who left Vontobel following the 2019 revamp, in the job. Vontobel is one of the most prolific issuers of structured products in Switzerland.
Upheaval Amid Shift
Stadler and Wasescha were key lieutenants of Roger Studer, Vontobel's head of investment banking who left as a result of a December 2019 restructuring. Eric Blattmann, Vontobel's long-time head of structured products, had left the bank shortly before Studer.
The stream of high-profile exits indicate upheaval at Deritrade, which the bank doesn't directly deny. The bank's decision to exit sell-side business in favor of focusing on its investment business triggered the changes, which effectively relegated the investment bank as well as the structured products arm.
Deritrade landed in a new platforms and services unit run by veteran Brian Fischer, and now sits alongside Vontobel's business with independent asset managers. Structured products have powered Vontobel's profits in recent years, and especially in the period of extreme volatility early in 2020.
