After an imbroglio felled its previous chairman, the Swiss bank didn't want to leave anything to chance in the search for a new leader. The end result isn't exactly flawless either, finews.com writes.
«Raiffeisen Has to Get It Right This Time» finews.com headlined in August when the Swiss cooperative lender began searching for a new chair. The bank was blindsided when previous chairman Guy Lachappelle was subject to a criminal complaint following a consensual extramarital affair.
On Thursday, Basel's prosecutor quietly mothballed one set of the allegations against Lachappelle – for passing on confidential information. For its part, Raiffeisen wanted to leave nothing to chance in the search for its third chair in four years.
Scorched Earth Search
On Wednesday, Raiffeisen nominated Thomas Mueller, a board member since 2018, for the role – and immediately opened itself up to scathing criticism of both the choice as well as the search process itself.
The bank said the nomination was the result of «a broad evaluation process.» In fact, the search itself was tortuous: after the Lachappelle shock, Raiffeisen vowed not to work with any headhunters, consultants, advisers, or C-suite whisperers who had either been involved in the 2018 or where otherwise associated with the ex-chairman in any way, finews.com learned.
That knocked out some of Switzerland's biggest and most influential searchers, as well as Guido Schilling, a Swiss veteran who had led the Lachappelle search. Witena, a little-known firm, won the job – perhaps more by virtue of who it wasn't than what it was.
Unknown Search Firm
Witena was somewhat hamstrung by Raiffeisen's avowal not to enlist someone an UBS or Credit Suisse banker – the St. Gallen-based cooperative bank prides itself on a culture and corporate character that it says sets it apart from Paradeplatz.
The decree from 2018 seems to have seeped through to the 2021 search: several candidates remembered the slight, and rejected Witena's advances for the Raiffeisen job, a person familiar with the matter told finews.com. Not surprisingly, the bank ultimately chose an insider.
Choice To Boomerage?
In doing so, it unleashed a torrent of criticism from Swiss banking blog «Inside Paradeplatz» (in German), which depicted Mueller as a vestige of Switzerland's legacy as a haven for untaxed money. The veteran of Latsis family-controlled EFG International, J. Safra Sarasin, and Swiss Life has little experience as a retail or small- and mid-sized enterprise banker.
Raiffeisen's 226 member banks would have done well with an outsider such as a veteran of UBS or Credit Suisse. It remains to be seen whether Mueller's nomination will boomerang – but the tortuous search culminated in anything but a safe solution.
