Next Wednesday, April 5, Sergio Ermotti will return to what was his home for almost a decade. The UBS bank has decided to trust him again to digest the purchase of Credit Suisse, after the banking crisis that shook Switzerland in recent weeks.
Born in 1960 in Lugano, in the Italian-speaking Helvetic canton, at the age of 15 Sergio dreams of becoming a footballer or skier and leaves school. “He studied with reluctance and wasn’t very bright,†he admits. He doesn’t know what to make of his life, but he understands that working is more interesting than studying. Still a teenager, he gets an internship at Corner Bank and becomes familiar with the markets. “When trading on the stock market, you talk about politics, finance, economics. The phones that ring all the time, the traders who buy and sell… That marked me.”
He does short courses without going through the canonical university studies. His career is brilliant. “I had such a good time, I was looking forward to Monday morning,†he recalls. At 25, he is already vice president of Citigroup in Zurich. He then moves to London, where he ends up being vice president of Merrill Lynch in the late 1990s. There he specializes in derivatives.
He also has a period in Italy, where he is named number two of the banking colossus Unicredit. He leaves office after the financial crisis, and that’s when he joins UBS. In 2011 he reached the highest position in the Swiss entity, where he would stay for almost a decade: no one has lasted that long in office.
During his tenure, he imposes a profound cultural change on Swiss banking. UBS has just suffered a loss of 2,300 million due to the bad practices of a trader. His calling card upon taking office is an internal memo stating: “I want to make it clear that no one’s personal interest or any amount of income is worth more than the reputation of the bank.” Ermotti reduces investment banking to a minimum and imposes harsh management criteria, after several financial scandals, to achieve credibility. He has to fire employees (some find the turnstile locked trying to get in). UBS workers describe him as “a resolute man capable of making decisions effectively.”
Sergio Ermotti is a popular figure in his country. In 2015, the newspaper Schweiz am Sonntag named him the most successful manager of the firms listed on the Swiss Market Index. Surveys say that the dream of recent Swiss graduates is to work first at Google and then at UBS. Because of his gray and white hair, some media call him “the George Clooney of the bench.” “I haven’t received any calls from Hollywood,” he usually replies. “I don’t get excited in the positive moments, I don’t get depressed in the hard periods: I can’t afford it. You have to contain your emotions and try to be balanced and not take the power you have seriously, because power also goes away and life goes on â€, he affirmed in an interview.
Now, at 62 years of age, after passing through the reinsurance company Swiss Re, he must break the cliché that sequels are not usually good. “The task at hand is urgent and demanding. To do this sustainably and successfully, and in the interest of all parties involved, we need to carefully and systematically assess all options. I am aware of the uncertainty, and I promise that we will focus on obtaining the best possible result for our clients, employees, shareholders and the Swiss Government â€, she declared after announcing her return.
After a period of foreign managers, the Swiss welcome the return of a compatriot to their flagship bank, now that it has become very big after the agreement with Credit Suisse. “He will have to do the same thing that he did at the beginning at UBS, refocus the business towards wealth management. I am very excited about the return of Ermottiâ€, comments a source close to UBS. A polyglot and football fan, Sergio Ermotti is a fan of Milan. His favorite movie is The Coup (1973). A story about thieves. But it is only fiction.
