Fourteen months after Vontobel's Roger Studer left in a revamp, a close-knit cohort around the long-standing top investment banker has quietly exited – but the Vontobel «ties» remain.
The Zurich-based firm, which reports its full-year results on Thursday, no longer likes calling itself a bank (which of course it still is), but an investment house following a 2019 revamp. CEO Zeno Staub broke with a product- and distribution-focused approach, which led to the exit of Roger Studer, who ran Vontobel's securities arm for nearly 20 years.
Studer maintained an cozy circle of associates reminiscent of days gone by: all Swiss men, they met regularly at 7 a.m. for coffee to discuss the day's agenda and informally to exchange views on market developments or hash out plans to build new platforms. Studer orchestrated the launch of a Deritrade, a wildly successful structured products platform.
Major Money-Maker
The cohort allowed Studer and his team – which included Fredy Flury (pictured below), Christof Naef, Samuel Laederach, and Peter Camenzind as well asGeorg von Wattenwyl – to tackle projects and see them through with little organizational fuss. The club dissolved after the departure of Studer, who is now a private investor and Bitcoin Suisse director.
Flury left Vontobel as did Laederach, who struck out on his own in financial marketing. Von Wattenwyl moved to Singapore, where he oversees much of Vontobel's local business.
Deritrade and structured products remain a huge money-maker for Vontobel, but the bank has completely reorganized how it runs the platform. The long-standing distribution head Eric Blattmann had already left in autumn of 2019. He was replaced by Eric Wasescha, who also left shortly after. Robin Lemann, who oversaw advisory for structured products, left the bank last March.
Two Remain At Vontobel
Deritrade's most recent head, Thomas Stadler, is also leaving Vontobel with a team. Of Studer's former cohort, just Naef, business development manager in structured products, and Camenzind, responsible for platforms like Investerest, Deritrade, and EAMnet remain with the bank.
Most landed well: Blattmann is head of distribution at Credit Suisse for insurance-linked securities, Wasescha runs Migros Bank's development of direct channels, Lemann is head of sales at Swiss property investment manager Lakeward.
Team Headed To Evooq
Stadler and his team are headed to Swiss investment technology provider Evooq, a person familiar with the matter told finews.com; both Stadler and Evooq declined to comment.
What of Studer? He set up a family office which invested in crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse and software developer NSM. He also co-founded – together with his Flury, an associate who ran credit platform Cosmofunding at Vontobel, a specialized private market credit start-up called 8FS.
Notably, Vontobel hasn't managed to build a private market unit – now Studer and Flury have stolen a march on the bank.
