Ralph Hamers looks increasingly set in his new job running UBS, even as the threat of criminal charges against him in the Netherlands over money laundering while at ING looms.
«Ralph Hamers enjoys the full confidence of the entire board of directors in his leadership of our company,» UBS Chairman Axel Weber told shareholders on Thursday according to prepared remarks for its investor meeting. The Swiss bank handed Hamers (pictured below) the top job in November, only for the Dutch banker to be hit with a revived criminal investigation into money laundering at ING while he was running it.
UBS' plan was to poach Hamers, one of Europe’s most talented banking innovators, to work his magic on the hidebound Swiss giant. For Weber, who had hoped to fire the starting shot on UBS's update this year before exiting himself in 2022, the criminal probe is an expensive self-own, as finews.com reported in January. He is now reportedly contemplating extending his stay in Zurich.
«Deeply Assessed»
UBS would find it difficult to sack Hamers under Swiss labor law even if Dutch prosecutors end up charging Hamers, according to a Swiss outlet traditionally used by people close to UBS' management to air their views. This is because the bank knew the facts surrounding the money laundering scandal when it hired him, through an outside assessment of Hamers.
The view was echoed by Weber on Thursday: «The investigation in the Netherlands that has recently been reopened into his activities as the former CEO at ING does nothing, in our view, to change our previous assessment,» he told shareholders. He didn't address his own tenure ending in 2022; Hamers skipped the issue altogether in his first address to UBS' investors.
