UBS brought back Sergio Ermotti as CEO to steer the $3.2B Credit Suisse takeover

On March 29, 2023, ten days after UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse, the bank announced Sergio Ermotti would return as group CEO effective April 5, replacing Ralph Hamers, who stays on to advise through the transition "to ensure a successful closure of the transaction and a smooth hand-over." Ermotti led UBS for nine years, from November 2011 to October 2020, and was chairman of Swiss Re at the time of his return. UBS shares rose 2% at the open on the news.

The March 19 takeover — Switzerland's largest bank buying its embattled rival for CHF 3 billion ($3.2 billion), orchestrated by regulators to stem a contagion threatening the global banking system — "imposes new priorities on the group," Chairman Colm Kelleher said, and UBS framed the CEO change as a response to "the new challenges and priorities facing UBS after the announcement of the acquisition."

Kelleher flagged the "significant execution risk" of the takeover and cast Ermotti's expertise as making him the "best pilot"; the strategy is to downsize Credit Suisse's non-core units as quickly as possible. "There are cultural issues between Credit Suisse and UBS. We do not want to import a bad culture into UBS," he said, locating the conflict in the reputationally challenged investment bank.

UBS's statement cited how Ermotti "successfully repositioned" the bank after the 2008 global financial crisis and "achieved a profound culture change." Ermotti described "a sense of call of duty" and said the chapter he had always wanted to write was "doing a transaction like this one." Hamers told employees UBS "did not buy Credit Suisse only to close it." Saxo Bank's Peter Garnry read the swap as fallout of a forced merger: "the now former CEO at UBS was not really happy about this shotgun wedding."

UBS shares rose 2% at the open; Chairman Kelleher cast Ermotti's 2008-crisis repositioning record as making him the "best pilot" for a high execution-risk integration.

The government-orchestrated takeover of Credit Suisse turned integration — not organic strategy — into UBS's top priority, and the board judged a leadership change necessary in its light.

Ermotti's first stint (2011-2020) delivered the post-2008 repositioning and culture change UBS cited as the template for regaining stakeholder trust.

Chairman Colm Kelleher stressed the "significant execution risk" of absorbing Credit Suisse and downsizing its non-core units quickly.

The board explicitly wanted to avoid importing Credit Suisse's investment-bank culture into UBS.

In a forced merger, integration execution is the risk that matters; a proven crisis track record and cultural fit can outweigh an incumbent's success. UBS refused to import Credit Suisse's culture.

Hamers remained at UBS to advise during the transition, saying he stepped aside in the interest of the combined bank, its stakeholders and Switzerland, and played down scale risk: "the big debate nowadays is not too big to fail, it's too small to survive." Kelleher said regulators were advised of Ermotti's designation and had to approve him for the role, and that the bank wants to "take away uncertainty as soon as we can" on restructuring and prospective layoffs. Ermotti expressed interest in staying long term.