Swiss Banker Hits Out Against Peer

He questioned Finma's abandoning of the fitness and probity test against someone who is «no longer a danger to the supervised insitutions.»

Rueedi is particularly offended that Finma has drawn the curtain, and the public will never hear whether and to what extent Vincenz violated rules. To be sure, Vincenz was never formally accused of anything. «Nevertheless, I have to ask myself whether this is the right approach for the future.»

Rueedi compares the case with a former CEO at retail lender Bank Coop, Andreas Waespi. The banker was punished with a three-year industry bank by Finma in 2014 for allegedly manipulating his bank's stock price. 

Enriching Himself?

The difference between the cases? Waespi didn't enrich himself with his rigging, Rueedi argues. «The end of the fitness and probity test against Vincenz shows a contrary picture. This can't be true!»

Rueedi doesn't directly accuse Vincenz of helping himself, and neither he nor Vincenz commented to finews.com. Nevertheless, the comments are emblematic of how some Paradeplatz bankers say the feel about Vincenz, who appears to have enjoyed broad authority with few checks and balances at Raiffeisen, which is a cooperative.

In publicly criticizing Vincenz, Rueedi is one of very few private bankers to break ranks to bash a peer. There have been few notable exceptions to the industry's rule of discretion in the past 20 years, and they reverberated throughout Switzerland and abroad.

 «Fat and Impotent»

In 2004, Julius Baer scion Hans Baer slammed the industry he spent nearly 50 years leading as having grown «fat but impotent» from years of easy profits off of undeclared offshore money.

Five years later, the combative and charismatic boss of now-defunct Wegelin & Cie, Konrad Hummler, made headlines with his criticism of UBS and his call for the Swiss bank to spin off its investment bank (UBS has repeatedly faced this call since the financial crisis, from hedge fund Knight Vinke, from Swiss retail investor proxy Ethos, and others, and has consistently refused).

Fitness, Probity Paramount

The comments by Rueedi, who joins the short list of public critics, come against the backdrop of his profession – private bankers of unlimited personal liability – disappearing. Many colleagues like Pictet & Cie have abandoned the model under the rising regulatory burden.

Tradition as much as their personal risk dictates that the unlimited liability genus of private banker views fitness and probity as paramount. Rueedi's missive makes clear that despite the presumption of innocence afforded to any accused, he questions Vincenz's suitability as a banker.