Swiss banking giant UBS has promoted dozens of employees to the coveted rank of managing director. Former Credit Suisse bankers also got their chance in the official round.
«Nurturing talent to leadership»: this is how UBS is publicizing its latest round of executive appointments on the online service LinkedIn. As the Swiss major bank explains, it has promoted 177 global employees to the coveted rank of managing director (MD).
One quarter of the new appointees are based in Switzerland; the home market remains slightly behind EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) with 29 percent and America with 27 percent, but still ranks higher than Asia with its 14 percent of all new MDs.
A Signal to the Sector
With women making up 30 percent of appointees, more women were promoted to the top jobs than in the previous year. And we also learned that former Credit Suisse employees were taken into account in the official round of appointments for the first time, after the Credit Suisse takeover in March 2023.
UBS does not wish to disclose the proportion of the promotions which it can claim as its own. Here in Switzerland, the finance blog «Inside Paradeplatz» (in German only)was the first to report about the MD appointments at the bank.
It is no accident that UBS is talking up the round of promotions on social media. The group wants to show to the world that, despite the complex Credit Suisse integration, it is still capable of supporting and promoting talent. This allows newly recruited staff members to hope that they can still climb right up to the very top.
There Could Still Be Downsizing
Of course, it has not escaped notice in the sector that the Credit Suisse takeover is now moving into the implementation phase and that this will place a great deal of strain on the organization until 2026. Last week, the bank’s management also raised its savings target from 10 to 13 billion dollars. The majority of this will come down to staffing, which is traditionally the greatest expenditure for banks.
This means that layoffs and job cuts are still on the table at UBS.
The Ralph Hamers Era Lingers
It is also striking that while other financial service providers have done away with their MD rank and switched to a role-based structure, the Swiss market leader is holding on to the title, and even using it for recruitment purposes. By all accounts, however, this does not mean that the bank is moving away from the strategy formulated by former CEO Ralph Hamers, of getting rid of strict hierarchies.
UBS bankers continue to be listed in the internal communication channels alongside their role, rather than alongside their rank.
